Last week I was catching up with an entrepreneur and he shared that he just did 24 one-on-one meetings with his customer success team in a single day. Wow! Each meeting was face-to-face for 15 minutes with a focus on learning about both the business and the person. Time with team members, especially focused, in-person time with people that aren’t on your direct team, is one of the best ways to learn and connect, regardless of size.
While regular one-on-one meetings with direct reports is a popular best practice, rarely does it extend to skip-level meetings or entire days with whole departments. Staying close to the customer, and close to the culture, are two of the most important things an entrepreneur needs to do. High velocity one-on-one meetings is a great tactic to help with the latter.
Entrepreneurs should schedule one day per month for high velocity one-on-ones with team members they don’t normally interact with. There’s no substitute for direct, focused communication with people throughout the organization.
David Cummings on Startups 
Couldn’t agree more! This commitment of undistracted face-to-face time yields perspective for the leadership team, while simultaneously granting the team member a pedestal from which to contribute. When working with any startup founds and leadership team, I like to help with structure it as an “03” format; a team member, their direct project manager, and lastly the CEO/CTO/CFO.