Also, please ensure you read through the items in the daily huddle and update your respective items accordingly prior to the huddle, as a preparation for the session itself, and ensure a smooth flow of discussions.

How To Make Daily Huddle Meetings More Productive

The Seven Rules to Daily Huddle:

1. Stand Up - Don't settle in and get comfortable - this isn't about the coffee and snacks.  Stand Up to keep it fast and high energy.
2. Keep it Short - This shouldn't take any longer than 10 minutes.  Take any issues that come up off line to solve them.  The daily huddle is about uncovering the problems and a having a quick path to resolution - not about solving them in front of the whole team.
3. Start on Time - Make sure that you start on time each and every time to create a positive Rhythm of Work.
4. Stick to a Daily Huddle Agenda - Use the agenda each and every time to keep it consistent.  We share victories from yesterday, top priorities for today and discuss roadblocks.
5. Share Victories -  What positive thing happened yesterday?  Focus on repeatable events that might be able to be used again to help delight customers.
6. Share Priorities - What is the most important thing that you need to get done today?  Do you need any input from any others of your team.
7. Stucks: Remove operational obstacles and get help from your team and get your projects back on track quickly.

Team Huddle best practices:

Be dedicated.  A good facilitator is dedicated to the regular meeting rhythm. Weekly Huddle Meetings and Daily Huddles should happen on their designated days/times without fail and held to strict time limits. If a person is not able to attend, they should still prepare by doing their Weekly Meeting Prep and sending their Victories, Priorities and Stucks to the Daily Huddle facilitator so that their voice can be heard. A good facilitator holds the team accountable to being prepared for each and every huddle.

Focus on the How, not the Why. Efficient Weekly Meetings produce solutions-based discussions instead of status-based presentations. The facilitator should not ask why Red and Yellow are struggling.  Instead, they should guide the discussion by asking the team how to move struggling priorities toward Green.  The goal is to improve communication among team members to address issues on a regular basis.

Steer Clear of Tangents. The best facilitators do a great job of reeling discussion in and keeping the team focused. If the discussion takes a left turn, bring everyone back to center. If a discussion only involves 2 people, ask them to take it offline. The goal is to keep everyone engaged.  If your huddles tend to go on too long, you might change them to a stand up meeting which allows everyone to stand to keep up the energy and make sure that it doesn't get too far of track.

Drive Team Accountability. Executive teams that list at least 2-3 Actions for each Individual Priority are infinitely more successful with execution.  Every week, the facilitator should review the Actions List with the team as part of the Weekly Meeting Agenda. As Actions come up during the Weekly Huddle or Daily Team Huddle, the facilitator should record those so they don't slip through the cracks.  Most teams prefer to have their huddles in the morning where they share their top priorities for the day and address issues that are impeding progress with a regular schedule of productive meetings.

Share Facilitator Duties. Some of the most advanced teams rotate facilitator duties throughout the executive team. At the beginning of the quarter, the weeks are assigned. If someone isn't able to cover their week, they have to find someone to switch. This takes the responsibility off of one person, and gives everyone the experience of facilitating. It also improves Weekly Meeting Prep and participation because everyone gets a taste of how it feels when you are the facilitator and someone doesn't contribute.

1. https://www.rhythmsystems.com/blog/how-to-keep-daily-huddles-useful-infographic#:~:text=The%20Seven%20Rules%20to%20Daily,off%20line%20to%20solve%20them.
2. https://www.rhythmsystems.com/blog/daily-huddle-template-and-examples-from-real-companies
3. https://www.rhythmsystems.com/blog/bid/127566/how-to-lead-a-successful-weekly-staff-huddle-and-daily-huddle
4. https://www.rhythmsystems.com/blog/top-10-qualities-of-a-good-planning-facilitator
5. https://www.rhythmsystems.com/blog/weekly-team-meetings-suck-lets-fix-them
6. https://www.rhythmsystems.com/blog/the-five-cs-of-team-accountability
7. https://connect.rhythmsystems.com/template-weekly-meeting-agenda