Here at Yeti we've discovered that one of the most effective leadership and management tools we have in our tool belt is also the one that requires the least amount of time.

Though it’s a simple tool, we’ve found that it’s powerful enough to build positive momentum within our teams, foster a culture of transparency and create happier team members - all in six minutes a day.

That tool is our Daily Huddle. It’s been discussed in multiple groundbreaking business books, including ​Verne Harnish’s “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits”​, and thousands of companies around the world have discovered the benefits that this simple meeting provides. Though it’s clear that a great deal of work goes into cultivating the traits that make successful teams, we’ve found that the Daily Huddle is one of the most important internal tactics we employ.

The Daily huddle is a short, 5-10 minute, all company meeting that occurs at the same time every day. It’s designed to keep everyone aligned while raising the energy of the group. The daily huddle generally follows the same agenda every meeting. Here at Yeti ours is 6 minutes, and includes 2 minutes of good news, 2 minutes of updating metrics and two minutes for a rotating team update  

Why hold a Daily Huddle? 

Though it’s short and simple, a Daily Huddle will provide your team with multiple benefits:

1. It creates a culture of transparency:

Transparency is a trademark of any successful organization and is often cited as the number one factor in determining employee workplace happiness. Transparency builds trust and stronger relationships, which in turn increases employee happiness and decreases employee turnover.

Transparency is also key in generating innovative solutions to problems. By regularly sharing problems occurring within the company, you are providing your team with the opportunity to supply a solution, allowing issues to be solved much more quickly and efficiently than if you were working alone.

At Yeti we’ve found that our daily huddle is one of the best forums we have for creating transparency within the company. We’ve structured our huddle around keeping the entire team informed and updated of the day to day business of the company by including good news, daily metrics and team updates in our agenda. The opportunity to ask questions is built into these agenda items, allowing everyone to remain informed and aware of the reasons behind company decisions.

2. It creates happier team members

We all have the very human need to feel appreciated for our efforts. Feeling recognized and appreciated for the work we do is often more important than the amount of money we get paid to do it. Recognized employees are happy employees, and happy employees are good for the company - they become more productive and engaged, are less likely to leave their jobs andfeel more committed to their workplace.

However, it can be difficult to find the time and place to give that recognition - often times managers will wait for an annual review to give their feedback and show their recognition which isn’t very effective in creating a feeling of acknowledgment in team members, especially when it’s paired with criticism. Positive feedback should happen as often as possible, and certainly more than once a year.

We’ve found that our daily huddle is the perfect time to recognize team members for their accomplishments and hard work. Not only does it fit seamlessly into our agenda, it’s also an opportunity to recognize individuals in front of their peers, magnifying the positive effects of the simple act of acknowledgement.

3. It creates positive momentum

Just like a snowball that eventually turns into an avalanche, a small dose of positive energy can gather the momentum that turns a team into an unstoppable force, pushing them past distractions and roadblocks and straight into success.

Though our team's positive momentum begins during our weekly goal setting meetings, it’s the daily huddle that propels that momentum forward. Consistently reviewing our goals and assessing our progress each day allows us to maintain our focus, and adds fuel to the fire that is propelling us forward, while taking the time to celebrate small successes each day, provides us with the motivation to keep going strong.

Execute your Huddle! 

Timing & Setting: 

Choose a time that works well for the daily business of your company. Keep in mind the fact that people are more likely to be punctual for a meeting that is set at an odd time than they are for a meeting set on the hour. At Yeti we begin our huddle at 2:50, a time when energy is typically at its lowest, and use it as a motivating force to help recharge our team for the remainder of the day.   

The Daily Huddle should create a sense of urgency, so choose an amount of time between 5 and 15 minutes, depending on the size of your group, and stick to it. The meeting should begin on time, regardless of whether everyone has arrived or not. 

To ensure your meeting ends in the prescribed amount of time you may initially need to set a timer and end the meeting regardless of whether you have finished or not. 

You can hold your Daily Huddle in any dedicated area, as long as it’s standing room only. No sitting! This helps to keep the meeting short and creates the sense of urgency that the meeting is structured around. 

Who Attends? 

One of the key motivations for holding a daily huddle is the creation of alignment and transparency within the company, so ideally, the entire company should be in attendance. 

If the size of a company makes it physically impossible for everyone to be present, at least one representative from each team should be in actual attendance, while everyone else joins in via video conferencing. 

Who Facilitates? 

Choose a naturally structured and disciplined team member to run the meeting. It’s the facilitator's job to watch the clock and keep the meeting on schedule. It’s important that they have the ability to recognize and stop time consuming tangents that don’t pertain to the entire group by asking the speaker to take it offline.   

The Agenda 

Good News (Two Minutes) 

At Yeti we begin our meetings with good news. This is an opportunity for everyone to discuss any good news occurring either personally or within the company. 

Our company good news generally consists of team goals that have been accomplished, positive customer feedback or new client prospects. We’ve found that a small dose of positive energy can gather momentum and become an unstoppable force, allowing us to push pass distractions and roadblocks, and straight into success. 

Sharing company good news motivates our team to keep up their great work, while also acting as a powerful force in lifting the spirits of teammates that may be worried or struggling.   

Updating Numbers (Two minutes) 

At the beginning of every week, each of our teams holds a strategy meeting that includes placing a number value on all the work that needs to be completed by the end of that week. This portion of our Daily Huddle consists of each team reporting the numbers they are hitting in real terms against those goal metrics. 

Consistently reviewing our goals and assessing our progress each day not only keeps teams accountable, it also allows us to maintain our focus while simultaneously tracking any trends that may be developing. 

When we notice that a team is missing their goal several weeks in a row, we know we should explore where the underlying issue exists. (Need help determining your numbers? See “Sprint Planning” below) 

Team Update (2 Minutes) 

This is an opportunity for one team to explain and demo what they have been working on, discuss what may be happening in the future of the project and answer questions anyone may have. 

The team update is an important aspect of the daily huddle as it creates cohesiveness and transparency within the company. By allowing each team an opportunity to give regular updates, you are providing a birds eye view of the company to individuals and teams that may not otherwise have much interaction with one another.   

The Cheer! 

Our Daily Huddle ends with a cheer. Each day a random person is chosen to pick the cheer of the day, which is usually extracted from the daily good news or team update. 

Though it may seem silly at first, this practice will help everyone return to their desks in good spirits, and everyone will eventually grow to love it! 

Tips for a successful Huddle ‍

Have a visible scoreboard 

Having a visual reminder of goals will not only help your team track and assess their progress each day, it will also serve as a source of motivation to keep them moving forward.   

At Yeti, we designed and built our own custom huddle board that tracks daily progress towards goals, keeps time to ensure the meeting stays on schedule, and cycles through the teams scheduled for daily updates. 

Keep it short and focused

Don’t add too many agenda items to your Daily Huddle or it will inevitably extend beyond the time constraints you created for it and become a source of frustration for your team. 

The Daily Huddle should be just one part of your meeting rhythm, so save discussion of larger issues for meetings with more dedicated time.   

Don’t Micromanage

While the Daily Huddle is great for keeping teams accountable, it’s important that it’s not used for micromanagement. Avoid checking in with teams or individuals on whether or not something has been completed during the huddle. 

Verne Harnish says it best in “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” - “Looking forward is great management, looking backwards is micromanagement”. 

Change as needed 

Your Daily Huddle shouldn’t be written in stone. If you find that there are agenda items that aren’t working well for your team, feel free to change them. Allow your team to provide input into the format of the meeting. Remember that as your company evolves, your huddle should evolve with it.   

Determining Your Numbers - Sprint Planning 

The goal number that each team updates during the Daily Huddle is determined at the beginning of each week, in a sprint planning meeting. 

During these meetings, the team looks at the project backlog (a list of all the things that need to be done within the project), and agrees upon a set of items to be completed during the week by playing a game called “Points Poker”. 

To play Points Poker, each team member holds a numbered set of cards and, as each item in the backlog is read out, puts down the card with the number of points they believe the item should be valued at, based on its complexity. 

The team then reaches a consensus, and the backlog item receives the point value agreed upon. The game of Points Poker continues with more backlog items until the number of points equals the teams velocity, which is calculated by adding the average number of points each individual team member is able to complete in a given week. 

Each task is then assigned to individual team members, who are then responsible for their completion. The Daily Huddle numbers are updated as these tasks are completed. 

How does this help me meet my goals? 

The numbers that each of your teams are providing on a week to week basis can be plugged into monthly reports that will show exactly how closely aligned you are with your quarterly and yearly goals. 

These reports will enable you to see exactly where issues may be arising, providing you with the opportunity to correct them immediately, while a simple solution is still viable, rather than having them snowball in to large complicated issues. 

We recommend utilizing Burndown charts to help you determine the likelihood of achieving each of your Sprint goals. They work by measuring how much work has been completed during a specific timeframe against the amount of time still available to complete the project.

The obvious benefit of a burndown chart is that it provides an updated status report on the progress of the project in an easy to read chart. Keeping this visual representation of your team’s progress displayed in a prominent location helps them to remain aware of where they stand in relation to their objectives, serving as additional motivation to meet their goals.