Transforming Daily Huddles
From Routine Updates to Catalysts for Change
The daily huddle is a pivotal ritual in the pursuit of operational excellence. But are these huddles merely transactional exchanges of information, or are they genuinely transformational drivers of improvement: do they provide the structure for embedding culture change? I’ve spent the last three weeks intensely observing an executive team in action, analyzing daily huddles, and providing invaluable insights into elevating these meetings from routine updates to dynamic problem-solving sessions. I delivered my observations to the CEO in a series of reflections, highlighting critical shortcomings and offering a roadmap for achieving huddle excellence. Below is a summary of the more general ideas.
Adhering to Standards: The Bedrock of Effective Huddles
One of my recurring themes is the importance of adhering to established standards. This is one of the four foundations for operational excellence: standardization, roles and responsibilities, visual management, and plan-do-check-act (pdCA) cycles. In my model, the daily huddle or meeting includes incorporating specific elements like the "Positive Culture Check" and the "Team Wellbeing Check" into each huddle. These checks are designed to proactively assess team dynamics, identify values in action, and catch potential issues early on. However, I found instances where these standards were overlooked, signaling a need for reinforcement. The "Team Wellbeing check," in particular, offers a structured way to gauge the team's overall health, using a continuum ranging from "tentative" to "moving forward."
Leaders can better understand team morale and address underlying tensions or conflicts by consistently monitoring these indicators. While these “checks” are vital for team health, other standards are equally important: checking for problems from the last 24 hours, checking the status of “top problems” from the monthly pdCA cycle—looking for barriers and applying more urgency to them—and sifting through situational awareness reports to find potential failures that lie in the next 24 hours. The huddle is a hub for exchanging information, but it is more than that.
Beyond Information Exchange: Fostering a Transformational Mindset
For huddles to be genuinely transformational, they must move beyond the simple exchange of information and actively propel improvement and positive change. I use “powerful questions” to stimulate those I am coaching to deeper thinking. In this series of reflections, I posed this powerful question: "Did the huddle propel or catalyze improvement (transformation), or did it transact information?". This question encapsulates the essence of transformational huddles – a focus on action and accountability.
To facilitate this shift, I emphasized using the "very next thing" (VNT) prompt. This simple yet effective tool connects elements of problem-solving—like the point of recognition, the point of cause, the target condition, the root cause, countermeasure actions, and checks for control—discussed to tangible actions, ensuring that issues are addressed and tracked on the Team Accountability Board (TAB). By assigning clear action items to assigned owners, the "VNT" prompt transforms huddles from talk shops into engines of improvement. Often, transformation work requires strategic leaders to dig beyond the surface level of a problem to its system or latent level.
Systems-Level Thinking: Unearthing Root Causes
A key characteristic of transformational huddles is a focus on system-level problem-solving. Rather than simply addressing immediate symptoms, I often urge teams to delve deeper and identify the management process causes of problems. I consistently prompt teams to consider the "latent/system-level part of that problem," encouraging them to think beyond quick fixes and explore systemic issues. This approach requires a shift in mindset, moving from a transactional focus on surface-level problems to a more comprehensive understanding of how their management processes contributed to a problem.
To cultivate this systems-level thinking, I advocate for "going to the Gemba" – where the work is done. I use the catchphrase “go and see, get the facts, and grasp the situation” to make the going more than—you guessed it—a transaction. By observing processes firsthand, strategic leaders can gain valuable insights into the factors contributing to problems and identify problem-solving opportunities. This hands-on approach and commitment to identifying and addressing systemic issues are essential for driving lasting change. Vital for this sticky change is clear and compelling communication.
Communication and Engagement: The Human Element
Effective team communication is paramount for driving transformational change. I continually remind executives and myself that open and honest communication acts as a catalyst, encouraging teams to engage with new ideas and address systemic issues. However, I also note the dark underbelly of communication: a lack of open communication and curiosity can hinder transformation and stifle positive change. When team members aren’t engaged or lack peer support—especially executive-level strategic management peer support in challenging each other—the potential for change is suffocated.
Fostering a culture of open communication and curiosity is essential for creating a fertile ground for transformational change. This involves encouraging team members to share their ideas, challenge assumptions, and ask questions that probe deeper into the systems-level causes of problems. Leaders can unlock their teams' collective intelligence and drive meaningful positive culture change and high performance by creating a safe and supportive environment for open dialogue.
Recommendations for Transformation
Based on my insights, several key recommendations emerge for transforming daily huddles:
Reinforce Standard Work: Provide additional training and support to ensure all huddle participants understand and consistently apply the standard work for a daily huddle, including Checking for Problems, the Positive Culture Check, and the Team Wellbeing Check.
Promote System-Level Thinking for Problems-Scanning: Encourage the team to investigate the root causes of problems by focusing on identifying and addressing systemic issues.
Implement and Maintain a Daily Meeting Record: Document key decisions, action items, and owners from each daily meeting—for all meetings, for that matter—to ensure accountability. For general meetings, we use a tool called Group Memory. For the huddle, a more simple daily record will work. For more on this, I’ll share my thoughts on Team Accountability sometime in the future. For now, check out these short posts on my YouTube channel.
Prioritize Systems-Level Problem Solving: Encourage the team to go beyond the production process level to identify and address the root causes of problems to the more complex and contentious system- or management-process-level. When your team starts doing this consistently, implement failure mode analysis procedures to avoid future errors when designing or improving processes.
GO and See, Get the Facts, and Grasp the Situation (The Three Gs): Encourage team members to use the Three Gs and visit the "Gemba" to observe processes firsthand and identify areas for improvement. Reject the notion that you can do the three Gs by sitting at your desk.
By embracing these principles and recommendations, organizations can transform their daily huddles from routine updates into powerful engines of continuous improvement. The key lies in shifting the focus from simply transacting information to actively propelling positive change, fostering a culture of open communication and curiosity, and empowering teams to address the root causes of problems.