Is it time to Huddle Up or Sit Down to Meet?

Once upon a time, companies would have large meetings regularly with their team members. This meeting could last up to an hour and it was filled with a lot of information that not everyone present needed to know. At some point, we began ditching the meetings and embracing the huddle. Huddles are synonymous with sports, and the purpose was to convey information quickly, concisely, and only relevant to what was happening at the time. It was a way to grab your teams attention, come up with a quick plan, and then hype each other up to execute that plan.

As these shorter huddles began to enter the workspace, the good old fashioned meeting began to wane. Technology began to change the face of meetings as we could email groups, text teams, and use communication apps/software in order to combat the attitude of "this meeting could have been an email". Additionally, as we moved away from the standard 9a-5p and integrated in remote work options, people are not always in the same spot at the same time anymore.

Are these old ways obsolete? Or, do all three have a place in today's market when it comes to communicating information to our teams. I, personally, feel the latter. I believe we can embrace the best of all of these forms of communication to ensure that we have full saturation of our expectations, initiatives, and goals.

Here's why...

The Meeting

The Benefits of the Once a Month Meeting

• Access to your full team. - everyone gets the same message, at the same time.
• Face time of the leadership - do you even know who works for you anymore?
• Accountability - mandatory, on the clock attendance, is track-able.
• Culture - this is the best space to recognize performance, achievements, promotions, etc.
• 30-60-90 - the meeting is where we cast the vision for the next 30, 60, 90 days.

The Cost of the Once a Month Meeting

• Payroll - you will need to add forecast/payroll hours to cover the meeting. Do not take it from the existing allotment.
• Incentives - since this is the place you will do the most recognition, you will need to budget your incentives to this event.
• Refreshments - whether company provided or chipped in by management, since this will happen outside of operating hours... coffee and bagels/donuts go a long way to up the early morning mood.

The Huddle

The Benefits of the Huddle

• Address the Immediate Team - done weekly, or daily, this allows you to address the immediate team who is executing the agenda for the week.
• Leadership Oversight - the team is aware of what leaders or managers will be overseeing these projects.
• Information Pipeline - the huddle is where we alert the team to any new information, shifts or changes to the plan of action, etc.
• Accountability - the meeting is the accountability to the overall plan or information, whereas the huddle is individual accountability to the assigned task and immediate deadlines.
• Culture - huddles are the best place to give immediate recognition for success between meetings.
• 24-7 - what is the agenda & expectation for the next 7 days

The Cost of the Huddle

• Information Gaps - Huddles that are held before business hours, only in the morning, at the end of the day, or just at the beginning of the week will create information gaps. Some team members will not be present because of their individual schedules this week. There must be other systems in place to convey the huddle information those team members.

Digital Communication

The Benefits of Digital Communication

• Immediate Access - in some industries our trajectory can change in an instant. Digital communication via email, text, app/platform, allows the ability to disperse information quickly.
• Immediate Accountability - if something needs to be addressed with the team, this is a great way to do so in the moment versus waiting for the next huddle/meeting. This should be used for team wide accountability, individual accountability should always be 1:1 and face:face.
• Fills the Gap - after the huddle, we can use our digital platforms to recap what was shared and thus fill the gaps for team members who were not present.
• Encouragement - digital communication also allows us to give live, in the moment, progress updates on our goals and our teams.
• Open Communication - Not only do these digital communication platforms give us (leaders) access to our teams, but it also allows the team access to each other. If someone needs support, suggestions, or information they can use the collective team for brainstorming.

The Cost of Digital Communication Platforms

Subscription - there are free platforms (GroupMe, WhenIWork,Etc.) that you can use for your teams, but depending on your needs there are subscription based platforms that allow for file sharing, subgrouping, shared calendars,etc. WHY NOT JUST TEXT? Using these platforms is a safety measure for your teams, not everyone wants to share their personal phone number with their entire team. These platforms connect people but keep their personal information private.

Abuse - when integrating new digital communication platforms into your teams, you need to have policy that accompanies it. What are the grounds of it's use, what can be shared, etc. Team members shouldn't have to worry that Mary Meme is going to spam the team all day with cute cat memes. Noel Boundaries shouldn't be messaging and expecting responses from team members when they are off the clock.

Best Practices:

If you are a business that runs quarter to quarter, you may only need to have the big meeting at the end of the quarter. This allows you to review the previous quarter results and quarter-case for the next 30-60-90.

Retailers should consider the monthly meeting, as this industry changes regularly based on shopping trends.

Early Morning or End of Day only huddles work best for teams that work a standard schedule, where everyone works the same schedule. If you have long business hours, with midshifts, your mids are missing the most information and they are there during your most productive hours. Instead consider having quick department huddles at shift changes.

Have an agenda, provide a written or digital copy to the team to follow along with.

Start on time, end on time. Leave room for questions.

Keep track of who attends the meetings, huddles should be a given based on the days schedule.