The Effective Morning Huddle

The Morning Huddle

While morning meetings are popular in a variety of fields, they are essential to running a dental practice. It is the one time of day when the entire team can come together to focus and discuss the opportunities of the day. To make your morning huddles more effective and efficient, try implementing the following three steps adapting from the Wharton Center for Leadership.

1) Set Up.

Prepare to the each huddle by establishing the goal. You should complete the following sentence “At the end of today’s huddle, it would be great if…..”. Once you know the goal for the huddle, you can set an agenda that covers the three common reasons for any meeting:

  • Inform. A review of the daily schedule and daily goal review.

  • Align. Get the team on the same page for additional treatment opportunities and case presentations.

  • Resolve. A quick open forum to discuss any issues and take input on potential resolutions.

2) Show Up.

As the leader of the practice, you need to lead by example and follow these three tenants of meeting effectiveness:

  • Preparedness. Ensure that you and the team are aware of the agenda prior to each huddle. Text it out 15 minutes before or put it on the white board in the breakroom.

  • Punctuality. The huddle must start and end on time. Respect everybody’s time by keeping it to the set schedule.

  • Presence. Unless you are demonstrating something on the computer, huddles should be unplugged: no phones, laptops or tablets allowed.

3) Speak Up.

The morning huddle is not a lecture but a time for team interaction. Use the following methods to help drive team engagement:

  • Participate. Let team members know that their opinion or thoughts are important by comfortably and quickly engaging them with questions. A quick Win & Loss discussion is a great place to start.

  • Produce. Use the huddle to enhance the work of the day and not prevent the team from doing that work. Don’t just present goals but the actions necessary to achieve those goals.

  • Proceed. Each team member should leave the huddle feeling energized and with a clear understanding how they can affect the practice goals.

Jeff Gullickson