The Daily Huddle

In the past six weeks, I have noticed an upturn in requests for assistance with creating or refreshing short, high frequency, action focussed team connects…and if you haven’t guessed already I’m talking about Huddles(*).

(* Huddles aka Stand Ups, Pre-shifts, Pre-Tours or CI Toolboxes)

It is evident in all offices and facilities of both my clients and my business partners’ clients that the quality and the quantity of Huddles around Visual Management Boards (VMBs) whilst improving, is still a material step down from where it could be and where it should be. How teams interact with these VMBs during a Huddle is a great indicator of the maturity of Continuous Improvement within that business. Those for whom a VMB/Huddle has become a tool, they could not do without it. But, for those who are not yet there…well, they may still be wondering why they have been asked to keep doing it.

One client in particular typifies this. In one sector of their business an improvement project on the generation of new Sales leads saw a VMB and Huddle as a key element of sustaining the project improvements. Those CI artefacts are still in place today and their order book has never looked healthier. Yet working with a different team within the same business it has taken longer to work through the project and, as such, establishing the momentum for the Huddle has proven much harder. In the last few weeks however, it has been great to finally see this momentum and now see the feedback from the project team members and the wider staff pool on how a cadence session, looking at real data and making visible commitments to peers has helped them. With that team there is still work to do to bring the throughput rate closer to the desired rate as set out in the A3, but the steps to get there are now visible to all and understood by all.

All Huddles are of course different, and so should be tailored (and flexed over time) to what the team needs. That said they should include much of the following:

? Any updates from the customer;

? What was accomplished yesterday;

? What are the top priorities for today and tomorrow;

? Any personal or team successes;

? Reviewing of core KPIs (using run charts) and focussing on turning Reds back to Green;

? And airing any roadblocks that team members need assistance with.

The Huddle is not the time to plan projects or solve problems which will distract from what needs focus today. If it is evident that more depth is required, then use the Huddle to schedule a meeting ASAP. Also try not to drift off topic, especially if someone starts to ramble or to head off on an unrelated tangent. If this happens, then maybe this guy can help; ELMO – Enough, Let’s Move On!

With the same client I mentioned earlier, one team wanted to use an existing meeting to run their Huddle. Whilst in principle not adding another connect seems a good idea, you risk merging a Huddle and Meeting. These are two very different sessions with two very different aims. I have seen this work a few years ago when I was back in the Energy sector, but we had to be very disciplined and very deliberate when calling the Huddle to an end and then resetting before we started the meeting. So, possible…yes, risk free…no.

And finally, if your team is not co-located and so a physical face-2-face Huddle is not possible, then the use of technology and Virtual Huddles which became necessary during the pandemic can also be made to work adequately. But as per the previous point, a little extra thought needs to go into the planning and deployment of a Virtual Huddle such that the aim is met.

As you ‘Go & See’ within your business look for those Huddle gaps. As I mentioned in my last article, even if the teams have VMBs in place, we can always improve both it and the associated Huddle. If you want to discuss any of the above in more detail, then please get in touch.