HOW TO // How to Huddle

I get asked a lot about how we conduct our famous daily tech huddles, so I thought I’d lay it out for you with these seemingly intuitive but maybe not so obvious tips. Enjoy!

Rules of engagement:

1. Camaraderie is the name of the game //

   Team Huddle may be the one time during an entire workday when the team gets to breathe and get to know each other. But techs are usually a shy bunch, so you need to devise a way to get everyone sharing. We do this with question of the day (that I also post to Twitter) and no one is allowed to pass or just hover – everyone hass to share. We’ve warm our team up with questions like, “What is your favorite video game” and then move on to “Have you ever had a near-death experience?”

2. Communication in real time //

   Since this is the only podium where the leadership gets a chance to speak to everyone at once face-to-face, on the fly messages can be communicated in huddle for all to hear and respond to. This cuts down on miscommunications throughout the day when everyone knows this tech is onsite all day and that client is having an emergency, etc.

3. It’s a praise party and everyone is invited //

   Huddle is a unique situation where team leaders have the opportunity to praise individuals for positive behavior while simultaneously expressing to everyone what the expectations are – so keep it positive and everyone wins. And because anyone from the company is invited – sales, marketing, admin – the praise can come from all angles which is really cool.

Follow Jeremy on Twitter @JKoellish for more insights, How To’s and IT Humor