Communication
What is the appropriate response time for ping messages from your executive?
Which meetings are, for the most part, movable when it comes to providing times for larger meetings?
1:1s [bw], [m], [q]
What does “don't just say hi” mean?
Waymo has a policy to not just say hi - this means when reaching out to someone don't just say "hi". Be polite but also be straightforward on why you are reaching out.
What are some things we can do during downtime? I.e., weeks when it isn’t busy, not a lot of requests, lots of OOO’s, etc
Deconflict execs calendars for at least a month out, confirm rooms for meetings, calendar audits (if needed), check titles of 1:1’s for formatting, proactively adding working time/prep time (if needed), review calendar audits to see if any 1:1 cadences can be reduced or changed to ad-hoc, etc
If someone reaches out to you for a meeting and provides times that your executive simply cannot match what do you do?
Provide alternate times that work within the time frame
*Never just say "sorry, none of these times work" - we need to always offer alternative solutions*
What are a couple of ideas to get your executive time back?
Setting up office hours, shifting cadences [w] to [bw], adding regular time blocks ahead of time, etc
You receive the following request via ping from your executive:
"Hi ABC! Hope your weekend went well! Two requests:
1. Could you look for a 45 min slot w/ Ronit for a career chat? sometime next week
2. Extra 30 min w/ Aman later today or tomorrow for more 1:1 time"
How would you effectively respond to this ping?
Thumbs up the message (acknowledge) and respond back: (one message answering all questions)
"Hi Chris - thanks! you as well 🙂
1. you already had 1:1 Ronit career conversation [6w] Friday, September 13⋅2:00 – 2:45pm I just extended it to 45 mins
2. Added another sync with Aman - 4:30-5p today"
**Reminder always good to copy and paste right from the calendar invite on times and dates considering we all sit different time zones**
When do you update a meeting from [HOLD] to [TBR] or vise versa?
Holds are placeholders to confirm times. Once the meeting/P0 attendees confirm the slot works, remove the [HOLD]. If the P0 attendees confirm that it does NOT work, add the [TBR] to the title until you can find another slot that works.
Reminder: There should not be any meetings with the word “hold” day of … sometimes if these aren't removed executives don't know whether or not to go to the meeting.
You receive the following email request:
“Hi all!
Henry is requesting to schedule the following meeting:
Topic: "SimEval Leads Quarterly Review"
Duration: 30 minutes
P0 Attendees: Dmitri Dolgov, Srikanth, Miz
Other required attendees: SimEvalLT (Marc Delingat, Mizuki McGrath, Henning Hohnhold, Kevin Khaw, Smitha Shyam, Jim McFadden) + Adam Rodriguez, Karl Mendes, Michael Wattendorf
Optional Attendees: Chris Ludwick + Vishay Nihalani + Shweta Shrivastava
Date: Ideally the last week of September but can push to 1st week of October if needed"
Who should respond first in this email thread?
The P0 attendees admins, then required attendees will respond matching P0 attendees availability
If an ABP/C sends an email with a hold and provides other times that would also work - what is important to include when confirming if the hold works?
Confirm if the hold works, but match alternative availability if it is provided in the initial email
[DAILY DOUBLE] If there are 2 hour long P0's conflicts on your executive's calendar, what are the steps we can take to deconflict without going to our executive first?
Is this a recurring meeting? If so, have they missed this before? What's the size of the audience for each meeting? (it's easier to move a 6 person meeting vs. a 25 person meeting with high level executives)
Acknowledge who the organizer is then reach out to the organizer/ABP/c to see if your exec is a P0, checking other attendees (i.e. is your exec's boss included in the meeting), confirming if a direct report can attend in their place as a delegate, check calendar audit
If we've used all our resources, then we should feel comfortable reaching out to our exec to confirm what takes priority/if the other meeting needs to be shifted.