How to run a team huddle

In a previous post I wrote about the value of hosting a team huddle. In this post I’ll walk you through a few ways to facilitate a huddle. I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of exposition. Let’s get to it.

Daily Standup: Do what Scrum does.

Scrum is a project management methodology. In Scrum, teams run a daily stand up (DSU). DSUs last 15 minutes. If the team finishes earlier, then so be it. Gather everybody together and make them stand (hence the name). Standing makes the meeting go faster.

During the DSU each team member takes a turn answering three questions.

  1. What did you work on yesterday?

  2. What are you working on today?

  3. Do you have any impediments?

Anybody can attend a team’s DSU, but the DSU is for the team. That means only the team members talk. Visitors get a turn at the floor only if the team gives them a turn.

Pros. A DSU has several benefits.

  1. Short time frame. Get in and get out. The faster the better.

  2. Creates transparency. Team members know what each other is working on, and if someone needs help.

  3. Is best when there’s a clear goal the team is working toward. When there’s a clear goal for the team, it is easy to see how everyone’s work aligns to that goal (or not).

  4. Doesn’t require a physical or electronic tool. You can facilitate a DSU just about anywhere.

Cons. DSUs are not perfect, and they have their fair share of cons (like anything else).

  1. Not valuable if the work is not broken down. If work is too large to be finished in 1 to 2 days, then the DSU loses value, and team members can easily tune each other out.

  2. You must fight to keep (project) managers from turning your DSU into a project status meeting. This isn’t a project status meeting—go look somewhere else for that.

  3. The focus is on tasks. It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture when you just talk about tasks.

Team Huddle.

Many teams have varying types of work that are not broken down. And, let’s face it, not everyone runs Scrum. Every team does have work. Using the Team Huddle approach focuses on the big picture.

Gather the team together and display your work visualization board/tool. Don’t go around the room to each person. Instead, talk to the work on the board starting with the Done column.

  1. Talk about the work that’s been completed since the last Team Huddle. This lets everyone see what’s been finished so they can celebrate those wins.

  2. Talk about each of the work items on the board starting with the column closest to the Done column. Spend about 1 minute talking a work item before moving on to the next work item. The facilitator should ask questions to discern how work is progressing for each work item.

  3. As a facilitator it is your job to get the team talking about what needs to happen to get the work item to the done column. The main question to think about for each work item is: “What needs to happen to get this work to Done?”

  4. Don’t worry if some people don’t speak during the Team Huddle. The Team Huddle is about the team getting work done, it’s not about individual status reports.

  5. Think about what can be done to improve the process. There are always things to improve. If work is stagnant, then challenge the team to think of ways to make work flow faster towards Done.

  6. Adjourn the Team Huddle after 15 minutes.

As with DSUs, anybody can attend the Team Huddle. Just be sure to inform visitors that this meeting is about the team collaborating on work.

Pros. The Team Huddle’s benefits are as follows.

  1. Helps to see the big picture. Talking to the work on your board let’s the team see how each work item fits into the other work that’s on the board.

  2. It’s all about the work. When the team focuses on how to get work done, then more work gets done.

  3. Simplicity at its core. The Team Huddle is simple to facilitate with zero prep time.

  4. Great for virtual teams if the team uses a virtual board.

Cons. Here are a few cons to the Team Huddle.

  1. People can feel like they are not contributing if they don’t speak. This is particularly true for those team members who support everyone else rather than driving work to complete on their own.

  2. Difficult for virtual team members if the team uses a physical board.

  3. Depending on the size of work, it may not make sense to run a Team Huddle every day (some would call that a pro).