Scaling Up's Daily Huddles are just like any other daily stand-up or daily scrum from the Agile coding world. It's a great opportunity for the team to align at the beginning of each day, reducing unwanted interruptions later in the day.
In Scaling Up, the Orchestrator runs the daily huddle, in the EOS Traction world this is known as the Integrator. The company President or CEO is not permitted to run these huddles but they can join as a team member if necessary.
In a successful Daily Huddle each team member reviews 3 to 4 areas out loud to the rest of the team. These areas include:
1. Done
Name 3 things that you accomplished yesterday. Ideally they will be bigger items related to the Quarterly Rocks / Objectives for the company.
If your role has weekly metrics, can you break your metrics down to the daily level? For instance, if my KPI is to check in with 25 clients per week, then a good daily KPI would be to check in with 5 clients per day.
2. Doing
Name 3 items that you plan on accomplishing today. These again should align with the company or department's goals for the quarter or year, critical to your seat in the company. This act of looking ahead on the day shows your team that you proactively thinking about your day rather than reacting to whims.
3. Stuck
Where are you stuck waiting on another team member? Be specific on what you are stuck on, who is keeping you stuck. Don't go into debate or discussion here. Simply state the "stuck" and address the team member who can assist you. After the huddle ends connect with that team member one-on-one to take action on resolving the item.
If a stuck shows up on multiple meetings, elevate the issue to the Weekly Meeting or L10 where the team can resolve the problem.
Best practices
- Start and end ON TIME... think ahead about what you have to share and be sure to end the meeting in under 10 minutes. It shows all team members that the collective time together is valuable and respected.
- Each person should take between 30 to 60 seconds to go thru ALL their 3 areas of focus. This isn't about laying everything out there. It's about finding alignment.
- No discussions. This is a meeting to inform rather than debate, question or explain. Save any one-to-one discussions for after the meeting.
- AVOID GENERALITIES. This can be the death of a meeting. Saying things such as:
- I had a meeting with...
- I cleared my inbox...
- I finished a bunch of smaller tasks...
You want to aim for meaningful items such as
- Completed the first draft of the marketing plan
- Defined and documented 10 roles with the company
- Went from 50% to 75% completed in releasing a new product feature - A stuck is ok, it shows you need help in an area and you are willing to ask for help before the problem festers and causes larger delays. If you are the person being called out for a stuck, that's ok as well. It's a team effort, so relax the Ego.
- The meeting lead aka Orchestrator / Integrator, is responsible for keeping the meeting on time and elevating larger issues to the L10 or Weekly Meeting.
Scaling Up / EO Founder Verne Harnish describes the ideal huddle.
