(English follows)
前置き
この記事は Engineering Manager vol.2 Advent Calendar 2018 6日目の記事です。
メルカリで Engineering Manager をしている masartzです。
今日は、先日自身が体験したことから得た、1on1の学びについて書いてみようと思います。
1on1コーチングの研修
メルカリでは、急拡大する組織に対応するため、Managerなどの中間層の教育・育成も急務となっております。Managerとしては、HR部門のサポートもあり研修プログラム等も受講する機会が与えられます。
先日 「1on1コーチング」のための時間があり、外部のプロコーチの方を相手に「コーチングを受ける側」の立場から勉強しようという機会でした。
当日、会議室に着き、挨拶と自己紹介を済ませ、いよいよ本題です。
コーチ:「最近の課題はありますか？」
masartz:「（もちろんない訳ないので、）あります」
コーチ:「例えばどんな課題ですか？」
masartz:「Aとか、Bとか、あるいはCとか、、（他にもたくさんある。。）」
コーチ:「なるほど、そうですよね。その中で敢えてこの場で話したいものはありますか？」
masartz:「うーん・・・」
ここで、とても困ってしまいました。失礼ながら赤の他人にいきなり話したい話題でもない。 俺としても日々悩みながら、周りと相談しながら進めていくべき事で、パッと答えが出るとか期待してないし、期待しちゃいけないとも思っているからです。
そんなようなニュアンスは伝え、「じゃあ、もっとたわいのないことでも、なんでも良いですが、どうですか？」と話題を振り直してもらいましたが、どうしても「この場を有意義に使えるような、何か適当な話題を探さなければ」という思いが頭から離れず、ウンウン唸るばかりでした。
実はこの日とても体調が悪く自分でも、頭回ってないなー、と思っていました。
さすがにラチがあかないので「ゴメンなさい、体調悪くて本当に頭が回らないです」と正直にお伝えしました。その後も、ストレッチをしてみましょう、とかなんとかきっかけを探そうとしてくれたのですが、最終的に「今、仕事関係なく本当に何をしても良いなら何したいですか？」と問われたので、答えました。
「正直、、寝たいです。。」
その返事は、ビックリするもので
「わかりました、じゃあ寝てみましょう！」
でした。
徹夜プロジェクトでよくやる、会議室の椅子を繋ぎ合わせた簡易ベットをその場で用意していただき、本当に寝ることになりました。その際に、「あとで起こしますね」と言っていただいたので、5分か10分仮眠したら起こしてくれるのかなと思って、試しに寝てみることにしました。
その後、起こされた時は研修時間の終了5分前でした。
90分の枠を用意していただいて、最初の30分が最初の話題探しの時間、なんとその後60分近く寝ていたそうです、、
「無理にアクションしても得られるものはない、まぁこういう時もありますよ」と全く意に介さない笑顔で場を絞めてくださったプロコーチの方には申し訳無さと共に、大きな勉強をさせていただいた感謝がありました。
この件から学んだこと
一種のコミュニケーション研修でしたが、そんな状況だったのでコミュニケーションした上でなにかを得たっていうものはぶっちゃけなにもありません（当たり前）。
しかし、この異常とも言える機会は、1on1において 相手の状況が好転するまで極限まで待つ という事の究極のベンチマークだったなと思います。
これはこれまで自分がメンバーとの1on1の場において、 その場をいかに充実させるか 、っていう事を考え、苦心していた身として完全に真逆のアプローチでした。
あそこまでのベンチマークを取る事はなかなかできません。60分寝かせて、MTGを無価値のまま終わらせる事を許容できるのが本当にすごいし、俺が外部の人間として顧客企業で研修する立場なら絶対途中で起こすだろうと思いました。
それ以降の自分の1on1スタイル
前述の通り、自分の1on1の課題はいくつもあります
- 業務の細かい連絡や確認など、自分から話す・伝える時間が多い
- 典型的に気をつけなければいけない事例の一つ、1on1の主役はあくまでメンバーです
- メンバーへの効果的な話のフリができない
- せいぜい「最近どう？」からの雑談レベルに終始してしまう
- メンバーからの話題を引き出す力が弱い
- 引き出そうとしても「うーん、特にないです」という返答をよくもらう
ダメなあるある典型例ではないでしょうか。
だからこそなお頑張って充実させようと思うと、より自分の話す時間が増えてという無限ループですね
なので、この件以降に決めた事としては
例え相手が寝る事だって受け入れる、もし寝て起きたらスッキリした頭で「そういえばこの前こんな事を考えて・・」とでも話を切り出してくれたら最高
と考えるようにしました。
具体的に1on1の途中でネタ切れしたら、
「じゃあこのままお互い自分の仕事でもして、なんか思いついたら話してー、なんも思いつかなければそれでも良いよ」
と言いつつ一緒に過ごす、などのアクションをするよう心がけています。
もちろんこの件をグローバルメンバー含めたチーム全員にも伝えようと思い、この記事も日英で書いています。
まとめ
1on1の方法論に限りませんが、対極的な考え方・やり方から思考の幅を広げるのは様々な場面で有用です。 それが難しいのは、対極的な考え・行動を自分自身ではなかなかできない（だからこそ対極にある）からです。 今回、プロコーチという非常に思考の幅の広い方の助けを得て、そのような事を学べたのは非常に良い機会でした。
宣伝告知
さて、メルカリではまさに様々な思考を持ったEngineering Managerを探しています。 俺のポジションも絶賛募集中であり、研修中に寝るやつより働ける！と思う方からのご応募お待ちしております。
メルカリのこれからを担うMicroservicesのPlatform部分を作る大事な仕事です。 どうぞよろしくお願いいたします！
明日は fukuo33 さんです、どうぞお楽しみに！
Introduction
This article is the 6th edition of Engineering Manager vol.2 Advent Calendar 2018.
Hi, I'm masartz and I am an Engineering Manager at Mercari. Today, I’d to write about a great learning opportunity I had recently.
One-on-One Coaching Training
At Mercari, educating mid-level members like managers has become a high priority because our organization is growing so quickly. As part of these efforts, managers like myself are given opportunities to take training courses organized by the HR department.
The other day, I was scheduled to take part in a training session called One-on-One Coaching. From what I had heard before the session, a professional coach, who was an external contractor, would be teaching me all about coaching.
On the day itself, I entered the MTG room on time, we greeted each other, did quick self introductions and then moved to the main topic of the training.
Coach: So, what topics would you like to discuss with me? How can I help you?
masartz: Of course I thought about it before coming, and I have a few things...
Coach: For example?
masartz: Well, there is the issue A, B, and C. And actually I have more as well, but...
Coach: I see. Which of those do you want to discuss now?
masartz: Umm...
I was in trouble at this point. I realized I couldn’t really discuss any of these topics effectively with a stranger. The topics were things I was worried about and had been discussing with my colleagues to try to resolve. Even worse, they were not things I could get definitive answers about, and I shouldn’t expect to.
I told him what I was thinking and he said that it was no problem. He suggested we we just talk casually for the rest of the session.
But this idea bothered me too because I was thinking that I had to make good use of this training. I couldn’t just waste this opportunity with a professional coach. I had to come up with a good topic for us to discuss.
Honestly speaking, I was not feeling well that day. My physical condition was poor and I couldn’t really think clearly.
By this point, the conversation had basically stopped since I had take so much time to think about what to do. So I finally told him the truth as politely as I could, that I wasn’t feeling well and I couldn’t think clearly. I felt terrible and apologized.
First he recommended that I stretch or grab a coffee or something to refresh. I knew none of those things would work and I still didn’t know what to do. Finally, he asked an unexpected question.
Coach: If you could do anything right now, anything at all, what do you want to do?
Masartz: Actually, I really want to take a nap.
Coach: Got it. That’s what you should do then.
Of course I was really surprised. But he didn’t miss a beat and started building a bed for me by pushing some chairs together. It was something I hadn’t seen in a long time, not since when I first started working many years ago.
Despite some reluctance, I followed his instructions and got comfortable. He said he would wake me up later. I figured I could take a quick 10-minute nap and then we would restart the training session.
When he woke me up I saw there were only 5 minutes left in the session. I started to do the math: it was scheduled to be a 90-minute MTG, we had spent about 30 minutes introducing ourselves and trying to find a topic to discuss, so that means I had slept for almost an hour! I apologized again.
Coach: No problem at all. We can't get anything done by forcing it to happen.
He didn’t look upset at all. He just looked really sincere about his message. All I could do was say sorry once again and then I thanked him for teaching me this lesson.
What I Learned
This was supposed to be communication training, but I didn’t do any real communication since I was asleep most of the time. However, I think this strange situation was the greatest lesson I could learn about waiting for people until they are ready. How important it is to wait until the person I’m meeting with is ready to discuss something, being patient until they are feeling well enough physically and mentally to talk.
This is completely opposite from the way I had been thinking about one-on-ones. I was always asking myself how can we use this time efficiently. How can I make it exciting? How can I make it useful?
Most people don’t have the patience to wait until the right time. That’s why the coach allowing me to sleep was so surprising. He was ready to accept having a MTG with no real value to happen and not be bothered by it at all.
Before this training, if the roles had been reversed, and I was the external consultant, I would have definitely woken him up.
My One-on-One MTG Style
As I said, I have often questioned myself about how to have the perfect one-on-one meetings, and I have identified some key issues.
- Issue: Spending too much time on topics from my agenda (announcements, reviewing old topics, etc.)
- This is one of the most common problems. It’s easy for managers, including me to forget that one-on-ones should be led by the team member, not themselves.
- Issue: Not being able to ask the right questions
- When I couldn’t think of what questions to ask, I would just ask how they had been lately. I thought just having a casual chat was not a productive use of the time.
- Issue: Not being able to figure out what topic to discuss
- Usually, when asking the team member what topic they would like to talk about they would just say everything was OK. I felt this was not really an acceptable answer.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who thought this way about one-on-one meetings. I knew it was a problem before, but my fixes always led to me talking more. I was stuck in a negative cycle. But following my session with the professional coach, my thinking about one-on-ones has changed completely.
The meetings are now totally dependent on the team member. It’s completely their time and they can use it any way they like, up to and including sleeping if they want. I can accept it without hesitation.
Of course it would be great if they think of something they want to talk about when they wake up and are thinking more clearly, but that’s not the point. When they don’t have any specific topic to discuss (and don’t need a nap), I now suggest working on our own tasks for a while in the meeting room together. And if something comes up in the course of their work, we can talk about it.
This change has come as a bit of a surprise to my team members, so I wanted to write this article to explain the background and reasons behind it. And I wanted to make sure everyone understood it clearly so I wrote it in both Japanese and English.
Conclusion
It’s useful to expand your mind by considering the opposite way of thinking. This applies to to any situation, not only one-on-one meetings. This can be difficult because we can’t think of the opposite point of view easily by ourselves. In this case I could learn a really unusual and helpful way of thinking from a professional coach who has a lot of experience in a specific area. And for that I feel very grateful and lucky.
At Mercari, we are making a lot of effort to hire a wide variety of Engineering Managers. We are even recruiting for my position) right now. If you think you can create more value than someone who just sleeps during meetings, please apply!
This specific position has the important mission of creating the platform we need as we migrate from monolith architecture to Microservices.
fukuo33 will be writing more about this tomorrow topic. See you tomorrow!
*English edited by my amazing colleague JohnVS. Thank you very much!
