Does your team struggle with their priorities, knowing what we need to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing? Scrum meetings have been a part of software development for many years to help keep projects on a path forward, remove roadblocks, and set the stage for the work to be completed. These types of meetings run in a similar format can be essential to ensuring that your team stays on track and provides improved communications to not only management but the team as well. Running a huddle meeting takes efficiency and structure, here are some tips to conducting successful meetings:
- These meetings should be limited to no more than 30 minutes a day.
- The team lead or manager should conduct the meetings and take notes for actions.
- Focus your meetings on what should we be doing today, planning, sharing knowledge on those topics, and understanding any roadblocks that may need to be cleared.
- Try not to get into the weeds but maintain a high-level view of work efforts or projects in progress.
- Ensure your team understands to come prepared to every meeting to discuss their workload, questions, or roadblocks for the day.
- As a team lead:
- Set an agenda for each call and identify key items for discussion.
- Be ready to reprioritize tasks when necessary.
- Set the cadence for the meeting. Ensure the team is focused on important topics and not minutia.
- Be prepared to discuss items on a critical path for a project.
- Everyone should have a voice at these meetings, often conducting a round-robin approach and limit each participant’s time to 2 – 3 minutes.
- Use video if possible, these meetings often serve a dual purpose and can assist in team building.