In the past, when someone said huddle, you’d see people forming a small circle and leaning their heads together to form a small circle. These days, though, there are huddle rooms where people could troop into and hold meetings with offsite team members. We list here tips on how to improve the quality of your huddles:
Pick The Right Spot
The right spot is crucial to getting the rest right. If it’s located near the hallway, where there’s too much traffic, you can bet that someone will eventually walk by and wave. That’s a distraction you and your team don’t need so stay away from high-traffic areas.
Consider Space
A huddle room should be roomy enough, not just to accommodate teams and equipment needed to pull off those huddle sessions. If the room isn’t large enough, it’s better to move to a larger one than to have to force those units into the smaller space.
Set Rules
Want to make the most out of every huddle? Be sure to set some ground rules. For instance, if someone’s late, they should pay a fine or fee. That’s going to discourage them from logging in—or coming in—to the meeting late. In some cases, it’s also effective to fine anyone who failed to read through the supporting documents and files you sent in advance. That way, more and more of your staff will be coming in for those meetings, prepared to the gills.
Start With The Good News
The first two minutes is always the most important. It sets the tone for the rest of the meeting. What you could do is start with good news to celebrate, says Forbes. That could work to motivate your team to achieve better results every day. However, this doesn’t work on all employees. Consider the attitudes and behavior of your employees to make sure it’s the right tactic to take with them.
Choose Your Tools
Bad choices in your tools and systems could be why your call’s video quality is dismal or why the audio is crummy. With options like the BlueJeans huddle meeting solution available, you can look forward to better video clarity, one that brings your ‘online huddle’ to a remarkable experience. It’s not hard to see why users feel like the other team is right in the room with them. That’s how superior audio and video can change the experience.
Know Your Tools
The best video conferencing equipment and machines are useless if you don’t take the time to learn them. Master your tools. Know them inside and out. That way, you can use them without second-guessing your choices. No need to stress over which buttons to push or where to find the files you need for your presentation. Exploring what the system can do helps you get a better idea of how far you could go to push the limits of the system, what you can achieve with it and not.
Keep it Short
Huddle meetings were meant to be short. Remember that when you invite people over for one. If you must send out an invite, keep the meeting as short and simple as possible. For lengthy discussions, you could set up a different meeting to discuss details and information at length.
Determine Issues
Huddle sessions, whether in person or online through video calling equipment, helps teams stay on top of projects and problems. However, if there’s anything that’s derailing the sessions—slow internet speed, poor video calling system, employee behavior—you’ll need to determine what those issues are and to find ways to resolve them as soon as possible, says LinkedIn. Faulty system? Replace it with a better one. Slow internet? Talk to your service provider. Employees logging late or coming late to the meeting? Issue a stern warning. Set a punishment for the next time they miss the meeting. These should help iron things out to ensure your huddles continue without problems.
Have Fun
The best thing about having a huddle room at work is that onsite and offsite teams could come together and meet up any time, even when they aren’t in the same state or country. It eliminates problems set by geographical distances. It doesn’t just offer geographically-dispersed staff a chance to improve the way they work with other members of the team, it also gives them the perfect opportunity to build on their relationships with their coworkers. Encourage them to say hi or touch base with their offsite colleagues. By catching up and having fun together through video calls, your teams are sure to develop the camaraderie and bond that’s essential to building strong, united teams. Those are the kinds of teams that lead companies to success.
If your online huddles aren’t working as great as they should, it might time to give these suggestions a try.
