One of the easiest ways to boost communication on your team is a 5 minute daily meeting. This is regardless of size of organization, department or level of organization. Often called a daily standup, it’s a quick way to set priorities, celebrate wins and identify areas for improvement.
It really takes a few simple things, but when done consistently helps achieve tremendous clarity and improvement.
White board
White board can be an actual white board, a board with sticky notes, a screen with an Excel spreadsheet, a view of scheduling software or a BI dashboard. The point is to include a few simple things on it:
- What were we trying to accomplish yesterday? (in list or numbers)
- What are we trying to accomplish today? (in list or numbers)
- What’s our metric for the week or month?
5 minutes
The point is that this is quick. Get your team committed to showing up, start on time and keep the balance between encouraging bringing challenges up and trying to solve them right then and there.
Good questions
A few good questions will get the conversation going?
How did yesterday go?
(If things went well) What did we do well to hit our plan? This is also a chance to acknowledge people that went above and beyond.
(If things did not go well) What unexpected challenges did we hit? Were we set up for success? Ideas on how to do better?
It’s critical here to encourage people to speak up, and then if a topic requiring attention comes up that we (1) acknowledge it needs addressing and (2) decide who will follow up, how and by when. Don’t try to have a 30 minute problem solving session right there and then with everyone.
Next question – are we set up for success for our plan today?
(If not) Assign responsibilities to address shortcomings right there or immediately following the meeting.
(If yes) Great! And be sure to reference that tomorrow if things don’t go according to plan – “what unexpected challenges did we hit?”
Final note – acknowledge the weekly or monthly metric. Doesn’t need a lot of time, but especially if the team is doing well, this is the opportunity to applaud the team’s effort month to date at the end of the meeting.
Things to not do:
- Don’t go line by line over a schedule – that should be visible for everyone to see otherwise.
- Do all the talking yourself – remember to ask good questions and engage your team.
- Try to solve all the problems right there – make a plan to work on it, and report back the next day.
