5 tips to run great team huddles
Team huddles are a habit of high-performing teams, in manufacturing and beyond. Huddles help a team stay aligned, accountable, and productive.
Here are 5 tips to make your huddles effective:
Hold at a consistent time when all team members can attend, to build the habit. The start of every day or shift is often best.
Start on time, always. Even if folks are still arriving, start on time. Starting on time reinforces the norm of coming on time, whereas starting late can cause timeliness to slide. Have a contingency plan so you start on time even if the leader is running late. One tip to reinforce the timeliness and pace of the huddle is to start at an odd time, such as 7:03am.
Keep huddles short and focused. According to this article, the optimal time is 1.5 minutes per attendee plus 3 minutes, so a 4-person team would meet for 9 minutes and an 8-person team for 13 minutes. If problem-solving is required, take it offline.
Hold the meeting while reviewing a visual, such as a production board, whiteboard, or online system like Guidewheel. All attendees can view the same information, while leaders can also update the info.
Start and end on a positive note. Many leaders like to start with teammates sharing a good thing that happened since the last meeting, and close with a joke or inspirational quote.
Typical agendas for the team huddle include:
A bit of fun, such as a quote or joke of the day
What has been done since the last meeting
Priorities between now and the next meeting
Any “blockers” or risks that could get in the way
We hope these tips were helpful as you and your team as you run great huddles. If you’d like to share other huddle tips (or favorite jokes), let us know!
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