The Daily Huddle

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.”

-Dave Barry

The daily huddle is inspired by John D. Rockefeller’s daily luncheon habit. These meetings occurred every day where Rockefeller would sit, eat and talk with the key leaders of Standard Oil. As Standard Oil grew the meetings grew to include the nine directors of the company. But that is all that changed. Throughout the meteoric growth of Standard Oil the daily luncheon habit continued.

How can a similar habit push performance of your organization to new heights? Keep reading to find out.

Most executive teams roll their eyes at the idea of a daily meeting. Trust me. We are not talking about your typical daily meeting. This meeting will last 5 to 15 minutes and will set the tone for your organization’s day. To meet your organization’s long term goals you have to be meeting your quarterly, monthly, weekly and even daily goals. The daily huddles sets you up to accomplish that.

How does a daily huddle work? Glad you asked.

  1. Stand Up – Daily huddles are often referred to as stand up meetings. Anytime someone gets comfortable in a chair they are likely to spend more time there. It simple science. A body at rest likes to stay at rest. A body standing up, eventually gets tired and wants to move on. That keeps your daily meeting moving at the pace it needs to.
  2. Everyone is Invited – Everyone in your organization does not have to be in the same meeting, but everyone in your organization will be in a daily huddle within the first hour of each day.

    The Scooter Store does a great job of aligning its workforce every single day and they do it under 45 minutes. Their front line teams huddle for 15 minutes, followed by the leaders of those teams huddling for 15 minutes on a national conference call. Lastly the executive team meets for a final 15-minute session.

  3. Agenda – You have to find something that works for your organization. Don’t be afraid to get it wrong. Just keep meeting and working to make this assembly a great start to each and every day.

    The best 3 topic agenda that I have seen comes from Jonathon Rasmusen in his book the “Agile Samurai”. It’s bold, but certainly sets the tone for the day. Just think – if you had to answer these questions each morning, what would you say? It’s pretty challenging.

    • What did you do to change the world yesterday?
    • How are you going to crush it today?
    • How are you going to blast through any obstacles unfortunate enough to stand in your way?

    A tamer version of the same questions comes from Lasse Koskela.

    • Things I have done since yesterday’s meeting.
    • Things I am going to get done today.
    • Obstacles that I need someone to remove.

    Remember that this is always the team reporting to the team, not the leader. The team holds itself accountable to one another. The team is working to accomplish their goals, not to just please the leader.

    Lastly, don’t forget to put your “daily measures” on your meeting agenda. Your organization must have one statistic that it measures daily. A dot-com company might count website hits. A sales organization might count the number of calls made or proposals that were sent out. The daily measures are the leading indicators of your firm’s long term success.

  4. Time – Make it in the first hour of the day. Make it at an odd time like 8:36. It grabs people’s attention. Start the meeting at that exact time. That is the great thing about all the smart phones now. Everyone knows what the exact right time is. No more “my watch is slow” excuses. Start the meeting at the exact start time every time. If people are coming in late they will soon get the picture.
  5. Never Cancel – Everyone is invited to the meeting, but everyone will not be able to make it every day. Make it easy for team members to call in from the road, but never cancel. The meeting must happen every day.

In conclusion, know that your first few meetings will probably flounder. It takes some time to get the rhythm of this type of meeting. Your job as leader is to just keep showing up – every day. Keep the meeting under 15 minutes. All the rest is flexible and can move with your organization.

Try this habit for 30 days and you will be amazed at what it does for the energy and effectiveness of your organization.

Thank you for being a part of our values driven community!

Image courtesy of www.wikipedia.org.

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