How to make meetings more fun, motivating, and interactive with a team huddle

Football team huddle

In most sports games, the players and the coach will gather in a motivational huddle and share positivity to start the game strong. Led by the coach or the captain, the team’s spirits are lifted with encouragement and a reminder of their accomplishments and goals. This is also a critical time to discuss strategy and priorities.

While the stakes may be different in a workplace, incorporating a team huddle in your organization can boost the morale of your team. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, simple 10 minute daily routines are just as useful as monthly celebratory meetings. We break down the benefits of an engaging team huddle and tips on how to host one.

Benefits of a team huddle

Streamlined communication

Gathering your team every morning to discuss the day’s goals will streamline communication. This is not where you share your daily to-do list, rather your team should share their priorities for the day so that everyone is on the same page. This is also a great time to share any blockers or pending approvals from management. Having 10 minutes in the morning to clarify everyone’s tasks will reduce interruptions, avoid repetitive conversations, overlap in assignments, and correct any misinformation.

Spread positivity and motivation

Set the tone of each day by celebrating achievements and acknowledging major accomplishments. Even if you are simply highlighting one team member, starting the day with positive news can lift your team’s spirits. Doing this at your daily huddle will create a positive work environment for your employees, which in turn will improve overall happiness and productivity levels. A positive work environment and happy employees leads to 12% increase in productivity.

Bridge the physical gap between remote and in-office employees

There are many benefits of working remotely – flexible hours, personal space, no interruptions, and more. However, one of the biggest disadvantages of remote work is the inability to tap your manager or coworkers on the shoulder to ask a question. By having a daily huddle, every member of the team is caught up and kept in the loop, helping remote workers feel connected and on track.

How to host an engaging team huddle

  • Set a routine

Most teams will host a daily huddle in the beginning of every workday. These can be short 10 minute stand-up style syncs with the team. Choose a time that works best for your entire team, especially remote workers that may be in a different time zone. (Read more on how to build a highly effective remote team.) Choosing a consistent schedule for team huddles will create a routine and ensure that no day ever gets missed.

  • Share the good, the bad, and the important

Each team’s huddle is different – cross-departmental teams may need to share broad updates while close-knit teams may only need to share daily tasks. Personalize your huddle for your team but try to include one of the following:

  • Summary of results from a project
  • Priorities and schedules for the upcoming period
  • Major risks, issues, or blockers
  • Gratitude and celebrations

Incorporating any of these topics in your team huddle will keep your team on the same page about projects, upcoming deadlines, and any critical issues.

  • Use a dashboard

To keep track of your daily huddles, use a dashboard to share recurring information such as deadlines, project dates, shoutouts, and more. This can be in the form of a Google Sheet with each day outlined or a simple bulletin board in your office. If you don’t want to create an elaborate dashboard, collect your team’s responses with an open-response poll. Ask your team to submit their daily stand-ups through this poll and store the responses to easily look back on in the future.

If you aren’t sure if a daily or weekly team huddle would best suit your employees, get their anonymous feedback using Poll Everywhere.