Ten Best Practices for Daily Huddles

This blog post on Ten Best Practices for Daily Huddles is a summary of one lesson in our online training course, The Lean Builder Master Class.

10 Best Practices for Daily Huddles

Over the years between Keyan and myself, we’ve run 1000s of daily huddles. When you get started, it’s often hard to get the right structure to make them work well. Today, I’ll share some best practices for your daily huddles.

#1: Use First Names for Everyone Present

We want to use first names when we are in that daily huddle and talking with our trade partners. This is going to do two things. First, it shows trust, mutual respect, and a desire to build a relationship. It’s key to use a first name versus a firm name or trade slang term. Next, it allows other trade partners to learn other trade partners’ names. When I was just starting out on Lean, I can think back to when I had projects going on for six months and the trade partners didn’t even know each other’s names.

#2: Start with an Icebreaker

This is especially true if the job is just getting started. You need to get your trade partners to engage with you and with each other. We want them to know about each other. It starts simple: ask how their weekend was. Now, it may be limited at first, so I need to start the process and bring up something about my weekend – a ball game I attended or something I did with my family. I want to open up everyone and get folks talking. Maybe we learn that our kids are in the same school, or we have the same hobbies. We want to build relationships amongst the team as that is where team building starts.

#3: Facilitate the Meeting, Don’t Present

Facilitation means that your goal is to speak 20% of the time and listen for 80%. You want that natural dialogue and questions to occur between the trade partners. In fact, we have a set of questions that facilitates that approach in a daily huddle. Don’t be discouraged if your trades are uncomfortable in presenting and being empowered at first – it’s a new approach for many of them.

#4 Keep It Short

This is a critical tip. Your daily huddle should last 15 to 20 minutes max. Kill the 1.5-hour meetings that everyone dreads. And, to keep yourself honest, set a timer for the meeting and when it goes off, you are done – even if you didn’t finish. In the beginning, you won’t get finished. People aren’t used to the cadence or that a meeting has a true end time. Then, over time your partners will really focus on sharing their critical items and comment only where needed.

#5 Start and End on Time

It sounds simple but often doesn’t happen. When you honor the time block, it demonstrates mutual respect on my end. I know my trade partners have a lot on their plates, so I want to get them in to share the information they need to know and address any constraints they have.

#6 No Phones or Distractions

There is nothing worse than in the middle of a daily huddle when someone’s phone rings, they answer and walk away. They have just demonstrated to everyone in the room that the person on the phone is more important. That breaks down the culture of trust and mutual respect. So, phones away for those 15-20 minutes for everyone in the room. This helps folks stay engaged on the conversation and sharing at hand.

#7 Stand Up

Think about it: you don’t ever see a professional sports team sitting down when they huddle. We take that same approach with our daily huddles. When someone is standing up, they are more engaged, more concise, more collaborative. It’s active listening that takes place when you are standing.

#8 Stay Consistent

We’ve seen this happen quite often with project teams. The momentum starts out great, and the job is humming along. The tendency comes into thinking that it’s working so well, we don’t need to meet daily and can meet instead two or three times a week. Then, some of your trade partners may think, well I can skip this meeting, or I forgot it was today. When you stop the routine, people easily forget the value and attendance starts to drop….and before you know it, jobsite problems arise. Keep it consistent – same day, same time, same location.

#9 Use E.L.M.O.

In this case, E.L.M.O. is an acronym that stands for “Enough. Let’s Move On.” It’s a physical stuffed animal that you use to help respectfully and visually pull the meeting back on track if it’s taken a detour and off course. If you have a trade partner that is talking about something not relevant to that meeting, I’m going to grab my ELMO, say “let’s pause,” and toss the ELMO to the trade. I share that I hear them, I recognize it’s important, and I’m going to write it down on a parking lot board now so we don’t lose the item, and we can chat about it later today. In 10 seconds, I’ve acknowledged him, documented his need, provided context for when I can reply, and gotten the meeting back on track.

Maybe you aren’t the teddy bear type, it can be anything: a Snickers bar, a yellow sports warning flag, a 2-minute warning hand symbol, just something to help keep the meeting on track. (AND…don’t be surprised if your trade partners call ELMO on you one day!)

#10 Involve Everyone

You might find that longtime superintendents don’t want office personnel or project managers and rather they just want the folks inside the fence. But if you involve them in your daily huddle, they could have answers for RFIs, submittals, or changes you need. As the job progresses, it’s a great way for them to know early if there is an RFI coming up or questions for the architect or owner that they need to clear. The key is to have the right people in the room to get the most value at that moment.

Now, it’s important to understand that Lean is a journey. It starts by implementing best practices that are promising, efficient, and effective. You don’t have to implement them all, but the more you implement and use consistency, the stronger your Lean experience and results will be.

Want to Keep Learning?

This blog post is a summary from one of the video lessons in our online training course, The Lean Builder Master Class. The Daily Huddle training module includes eight videos that provide the background, tools, and tips to make your daily huddles successful.

In total, our Master Class offers 47 videos and 11 resource downloads to help you implement Lean on your jobsite. We invite you to learn more and join us on that journey with a free trial. Start today.

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