Page 92 - Free the Idea Monkey

THE DAILY HUDDLE
Why not start every day with a fun meeting? The daily huddle

is a simple practice that jump-starts the day and sets the stage for
big ideas. Verne Harnish, “growth guy” and chief executive officer
of Gazelles, which is an outsourced corporate university for midsize
firms, taught us about the daily huddle. He developed the practice
after studying and writing about John D. Rockefeller in his book
The Rockefeller Habits. Here is our variation on Verne’s idea. Our
company meets every day at 9 a.m. for no more than nine minutes.
The agenda for our 9@9 meeting is simple. We share good news,
“stucks” and keymetrics. We use video to connect offices so everyone
can attend the meeting. We encourage everyone to take a turn at
running the huddle. Most importantly, we try to make them casual,
transparent and fun.

In the last year, our daily huddles have included baby pools—
where everyone guesses when someone’s baby will be born, whether
it will be a boy or girl, and what it will weigh—costume con-
tests, music trivia, engagement announcements,
love poems, and ballads to welcome new
employees. Yes, there is a lot of silli-
ness and, not surprisingly, there
is a lot of laughter. Much of the
laughter has led to jokes, obser-
vations and comments that
have, in turn, led to ideas that
have directly impacted our cli-
ents, company and community.

Says Harnish, “Of all the prac-
tices we teach, the daily huddle is
probably the simplest and most powerful
way to infuse fun, accountability and momentum. When companies
embrace the huddle, we always see a positive impact to their bottom
line and culture.”

He’s right. In fact, our clients actually like to come to these
huddles. That should tell you something about the experience.

77C H A P T E R 5