Are 1:1s Outdated? What One Manager Taught Me

Not long ago, I was speaking with a colleague — an experienced manager in a busy food sales department. She had been leading people for over a decade, navigating a competitive market, relentless targets, and the daily demands of frontline work.

When I shared my idea for the ARCA+ Professional 1:1 Framework, she paused and said with certainty: “Honestly, one-on-ones are outdated and irrelevant.”

Her words landed heavily. Here was a capable manager, respected by her team, yet completely disillusioned with the idea of this type of employee support and engagement. For her, they had become transactional: a cycle of updates, KPIs, and task lists that rarely addressed the fundamental challenges her people faced.

That conversation stuck with me. It made me question: Have 1:1s lost their purpose? May I be wrong about ARCA+.........

It also sparked a deeper exploration of the research on professional one-on-ones and professional supervision models, not just whether they’re still relevant, but what makes them effective, and how they can be reimagined to support today’s leaders and employees.

The Evidence: Why Traditional 1:1s Fall Short

What I found confirmed her frustration. Traditional supervision models were developed decades ago, primarily for clinical and therapeutic settings, where practice reflection, oversight, compliance, and case reviews were the primary focus. Useful, but increasingly misaligned with the realities of today’s complex, people-centred workplaces.

The problem is clear:

• Too compliance-heavy → Sessions become about ticking boxes, not building people.

• Too leader-driven → Employees are often passive recipients instead of active participants.

• Too rigid → One-size-fits-all formats fail to adapt to different personalities, contexts, or neurodivergent needs.

Meanwhile, research points in another direction:

• Psychological safety drives learning. Edmondson (1999) found that teams who feel safe to speak up and acknowledge mistakes engage more in learning behaviours and perform better. In contrast, rigid supervision models can undermine this safety.

• Reflective supervision builds resilience. Ruch (2005) and Bogo (2010) demonstrate that reflective conversations facilitate professionals in processing the emotional demands of complex work, resulting in greater clarity and informed ethical decision-making.

• Coaching-based approaches outperform directive models. Hawkins (2012) and Grant (2017) demonstrate that coaching conversations, focused on reflection, ownership, and capability, drive stronger engagement and skill development than top-down feedback alone.

• Integrated supervision strengthens quality. Morrison (2005) highlights that adequate supervision balances support, accountability, and development — not just one or the other.

So, the issue isn’t that 1:1s are irrelevant. It’s that the way many organisations do them is outdated.

The Teaching Moment: How ARCA+ Reframes the 1:1

This is where ARCA+ comes in. It reframes 1:1s as developmental conversations built on five relational pillars — plus one vital ingredient:

• Alliance → Build trust, safety, and shared purpose.

• Reflection → Slow down, invite insight, create meaning beyond the task list.

• Capability → Stretch skills, grow confidence, and prepare for complexity.

• Accountability → Anchor clarity, risk-awareness, and follow-through.

• + Flexibility → Adapt to people’s needs, learning styles, and situational demands.

The invisible strong holding this together: A Developmental Mindset → Every conversation is an opportunity to grow. Progress over perfection. Curiosity over direction. Shared responsibility for learning(collabbWAY, 2025).

For example, within ARCA+, take the simple act of using a pre-session planner. Instead of arriving to ‘give updates’, employees identify in advance what they want to reflect on, stretch, or clarify. Leaders can then enter the conversation ready to coach and explore, rather than review tasks and updates.

The difference is important:

• Employees own the conversation.

• Leaders move from managing tasks to developing people.

• The meeting shifts from an obligation to a growth opportunity.

One manager who adopted ARCA+ told me, “It completely changed the dynamic in my team. I wasn’t dragging the conversation forward — my team came in prepared, reflective, and ready to grow.”

Final Reflection: From Outdated to Indispensable

I often think back to that colleague who told me one-on-one meetings were outdated. She was right; if they remain stuck as they are offered in some organisations: admin-heavy, task-focused updates, compliance-driven, and uninspiring.

However, ARCA+ reveals that when we incorporate Alliance, Reflection, Capability, Accountability, and Flexibility into the room, 1:1s become less irrelevant. They become one of the most powerful levers leaders have for culture, performance, and wellbeing.

Because at the end of the day, 1:1s are not just about updates. They’re about people, and when we treat them that way, they shift from being a meeting to manage into a conversation that matters.

References

Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.

collabbWAY. (2025). ARCA+ Professional 1:1 Framework. collabbWAY Leadership Resources.

Ruch, G. (2005). Reflective practice in contemporary child-care social work: The role of containment. British Journal of Social Work, 35(4), 521–535.

Bogo, M. (2010). Achieving competence in social work through field education. University of Toronto Press.

Hawkins, P. (2012). Creating a coaching culture. McGraw Hill.

Grant, A. M. (2017). The third ‘generation’ of workplace coaching: Creating a culture of engagement and productivity. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 10(1), 37–53.

Morrison, T. (2005). Staff supervision in social care: Making a real difference for staff and service users. Pavilion Publishing.