Daily Improvement Huddles
Apply intentional and disciplined improvement efforts to solve problems through shared accountability and a focus on learning.
As you may recall, the goal of Daily Improvement (DI) is to identify and address problems and inefficiencies in the organization’s processes and systems. As an organization deploys DI, it is important to create a culture where everyone is encouraged to seek out problems and implement improvements.
A critical activity in Daily Improvement is huddling. Huddles, when facilitated daily, help to establish a routine and shared accountability for monitoring performance and driving continuous improvement. Huddles also help create regular communication, can be used to deploy training, and can serve as a venue for providing recognition to those who have contributed to improving processes.
Think of huddles as a daily accountability process and regular check-in to help keep momentum to the team’s progress. This daily accountability process is designed to engage employees at all levels of the organization in making sure they have what they need to succeed at their work for the day. And, when something is missing, huddles provide people with the venue to ask for help in getting things back on track.
The beauty of this process is that because it happens so frequently, barriers are identified and escalated quickly, helping to avoid issues from going unnoticed, festering, and becoming a larger problem. Initially, escalating issues may seem uncomfortable, but as teams learn to work collaboratively to seek out problems, a byproduct of that process becomes improved trust between team members, departments, and leaders.
The content and agenda of the daily huddle are documented on the team’s improvement board. As the team facilitates the agenda, important updates and key decisions are documented on the improvement board. An example of an improvement huddle agenda is provided below.
The main focus of the improvement huddle is to review yesterday’s performance and develop today’s plan. In addition to this deliverable, although it may not be daily, teams may be asked to provide updates on their respective improvement cards. As issues or barriers to making progress on goals or resolving problems are identified, these items are documented and escalated to the appropriate stakeholders.
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The main focus of the improvement huddle is to review yesterday’s performance and develop today’s plan.
Click here to download a copy of the Daily Improvement Huddle Agenda template.