Since communication is usually one of the top 3 problems in any business, I’m a huge advocate of regular, time-limited huddles to reconnect and refocus the team.
Important as they are, sometimes these huddles can feel stagnant, and need a shot of energy to bring them to life. Here are options of questions/topics to use in your huddles to spice them up:
- Shout-outs for birthdays/anniversaries
- Wins – any good news from anyone?
- Metrics – going over meaningful numbers makes any huddle relevant and adds interest
- Top priorities – what is your top priority to accomplish before the next huddle?
- Reviewing top priorities – write them down – did you complete your top priority from last time?
- Core values review – ask one person to share a story about how they’ve seen a core value lived out recently at each huddle
- Roadblocks – is anyone ‘stuck’ anywhere?
- Information outgoing – what needs to be shared to bring people into the loop? Major customer visits happening? New initiatives, systems, procedures?
- Green/Yellow/Red – rate yourself (quickly) on the outcomes on your job scorecard, quarterly or yearly
- Best practices – any worth sharing that could help colleagues?
- One page plan review – Take one piece of your one page strategic plan and share why it’s important
- Appoint a time-keeper – instruct them to end the huddle once the allotted huddle time is complete. People (appropriately) hate meetings. While necessary, they should be as quick as possible
