using frequency to fix flakiness

If you find that you are often dropping meetings with folks on your team and you’re worried about the consequences that might have on morale, consider increasing the frequency and decreasing the duration of the meetings. Instead of an hour-long 1:1 once a week, you could do a daily 10-minute call on your drive home or a 15-minute standing meeting in the mornings. Frequency can build the sense of connection even more than duration. This is true in part because you’re more consistently on their radar. They anticipate connecting with you and can do so consistently instead of intermittently.

There’s risk and reward in this approach, because each meeting you schedule is effectively a promise of your time and attention. Every time you show up, you keep your word. Of course, this means you’re creating more opportunities to keep your word - and to break it. The stakes of each individual commitment are lower though - when you only talk to someone once a week or once a month, canceling is a big loss. Chances are good that if the power differential between you and that person is large, they are making their scarce time with you a priority. They say no to other people and opportunities to stay available for you.

-Ben