On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 11:30:24AM -0700, Tom Lowenthal wrote:
When applying for grants, planning future work, and otherwise thinking about what capacity we have leftover to do things in the future, it's really useful to know who's doing what and how much of it. I get some of this information from our sponsor/project-specific meetings, but it doesn't seem to be the full picture, so I'd like to trot out that old chestnut of regular one-on-one chats.
Hi Tom,
Thanks for taking this on.
This means that I'd like to spend between thirty and sixty minutes talking with each of you, once every week or two. I'd like to calibrate the frequency so that we can get calls down to 30 minutes each, with room to kvetch and have a conversation that's a little more than just rattling off deliverable status and time assignments.
Sounds good. But since you snuck the word 'calls' in there, let me suggest that you be flexible with each person about how they most efficiently interact. Some people will prefer phone calls, others scheduled irc meetings, and maybe others will work best with unscheduled irc meetings -- i.e. if they're on irc a lot it might be best just to catch them when they have a free moment and get an update, rather than spending time and effort on cordoning off some specific piece of the future.
There's a clear tradeoff here between "makes things more complicated for Tom" and "makes things more complicated for everybody else". I guess the trick will be finding the right balance so you can keep up with everybody while minimizing your impact on their ability to get work done. But I want to emphasize that while some people want managers ("tell me what to do next"), others want coordinators ("here's what I've been doing, please let other people know as needed") and there are probably more than just these two categories too. Try not to cut off the parts of people that don't fit in the cookie-cutter mold. :)
Or to make the questions more concrete, a) I assume you would prefer a more realtime interaction, rather than say email; but b) how do these meetings relate to, augment, or replace monthly tor-reports mails, which I remember you once declared an interest in obsoleting?
Thanks! --Roger