Every sports team has a pre-game huddle with the coach and players to get everyone focused on winning, on making plays correctly, and on each player doing their individual best so their colleagues can do theirs also.
Before they were sold, the old the Ritz Carlton hotel group had a daily “line up” meeting of every departmental employee with each shift change. Many hotels and restaurants still do. To get people focused on excellence, emphasize one or two important points of the day, and send them out energized.
Most work groups don’t do anything like this; all could improve performance if they did.
- Hold a daily 5-10 minute meeting when a new shift comes on duty. Have them standing–this is not the time to sit and relax.
- Expect everyone who impacts the work to be there: the front line people, the supervisors, the back office folks: all hands on deck.
- Group the employees in a circle if you can so they can see each other.
- Start with a quick review of a part of the company’s mission or core values. Have someone explain how that part impacts their work.
- Recognize birthdays or work anniversaries and any personal issues affecting a team member; those could be something they’re proud of, or could be a sad family occurrence.
- Announce some good news for the team: a team achievement, new business, a new team member, or a read great customer review.
- Ask, “Who has a lesson from yesterday to share with the team?” Emphasize that the function of mistakes is to provide lessons for the next time.
- Choose a training or safety lesson to quickly re-emphasize– include the reason for the rule.
- Invite participation with questions, needs, ideas and suggestions for the benefit of the team and the business.
- Have the meeting mostly in the form of questions– not orders and directions. In the beginning you’ll need to encourage people to speak up. After they see that the purpose is to do better work and not to attack people for errors, they’ll begin to participate more.
- Provide an inspirational quote or message for someone to read to everyone.
- Close with action: “hi- fives,” a cheer, or something everyone does together.
Initially some employees may say this feels strange and not needed. Overtime and doing this each day with each shift change you can expect better focus, teamwork, and productivity.