The Art of the Morning Huddle: How to Use This Simple Tool to Build Your Team

The morning huddle meeting with the medical practice team is a highly regarded practice management strategy that can help get everyone on the same page. Huddles are quick daily meetings that provide a reliable time and space for the practice manager and the rest of the team to plan for changes in the day’s workflow and to anticipate, prevent, and manage crises before they arise. They can give employees an opportunity to make adjustments that will improve patients’ experiences and staff members’ quality of life. They can also give the team a chance to make sure that no one drops the ball, before a busy day gets the better of everyone.

Morning huddles build teams and foster teamwork.

These are attractive benefits of morning huddles that will help you to improve your efficiency and productivity. However, morning huddles can help you achieve much more. In fact, Vrable(1) suggests that the morning huddle is probably the “single most effective meeting that you can have with your team.” That’s because morning huddles build teams and foster teamwork. As Stewart and Johnson(2) suggest, “Huddles work because they demand rapid team formation.” The act of getting your staff together quickly and consistently each day, if only for a few minutes, can make each employee feel connected to the rest of the staff and to the practice. It can counteract any feelings of isolation that he or she may have. In addition, Fisher Day(3) suggests that huddles can foster teamwork when employees identify who will need help throughout the day and make sure that someone is available and ready to jump in. In so doing, the members of the medical practice staff will feel that they are truly part of a team, and that they won’t have to fend for themselves when the going gets tough. The huddle reassures your employees that someone has their back.

Morning huddles can provide an opportunity for the staff to participate in a daily team building ritual.

Practice managers can also use morning huddles to build team morale. For example, managers can lift everyone up by closing morning huddles consistently on a positive note, Fisher Day says. Thanking everyone for their participation and wishing everyone a great day can go a long way toward building morale, she suggests. Morning huddles can also provide an opportunity for the staff to participate in a daily team building ritual. For example, you and your team can recite particular words at the start or end of your huddle, pass an object from person to person, or even sing a song to strengthen team bonds. (For more ideas on creating and using rituals for teambuilding, see my article, “Using Rituals to Strengthen Your Medical Practice Team” in the September/October 2015 issue of The Journal of Medical Practice Management.)

Huddles don’t cost anything but a few minutes of time. They are short meetings that don’t require lots of down time or planning. And they can benefit practices of any size. Stewart and Johnson suggest that large practices that use multiple hallways or pods can have a team member from each hallway attend the huddle and take important information back to his or her area. In small or solo practices, huddles can prevent problems that can arise when one person assumes that everyone else in the office knows what’s going on, they say.

So how can you use morning huddles to increase effectiveness and build teams? The keys are to streamline your morning huddles and to use them consistently. Below are 12 tips for creating and facilitating the best and most effective morning huddles for your medical practice team.

Twelve Tips for Creating and Using Morning Huddles in Your Medical Practice

These 12 tips will help you get the most from your morning huddles, whether the idea is brand new in your practice or one you’ve been using for a long time:

1. Meet in a place in your office where the team can gather easily. Banta(4) suggests that it is helpful to meet in a place where the day’s schedule can be displayed. “Typically, the huddle takes place in the break room with a flat-screen TV displaying the schedule for easy viewing,” Banta says. If this is not possible, each team member should have a hard copy of the current day’s schedule, plus the previous day’s schedule handy for review.

2. Make attendance and punctuality mandatory. Don’t remind your staff of the meeting each day or ask them to join you before the huddle. Make it their responsibility to show up on time, without your reminders. Then start on time. Don’t delay for stragglers. If team members consistently come late or don’t show up, address the matter with them in private. For huddles to work best, no one can be routinely exempt from them, any more than they can be routinely exempt from being part of the team. Tip: Start your huddle at an odd time, such as 8:43 am. The odd time can get your staff to think in increments and subtly influences the pace of the meeting. And, interestingly, an odd start time makes people more likely to show up on time.

3. Huddle for 15 minutes maximum. As Vrable suggests, “The shorter your team huddle, the better.” If huddles go on too long, you’ll start to get a lot of glazed over looks from staff members who don’t need to be part of the discussion, Vrable warns. As well, your staff may come to dread long-winded huddles. Best practice: Keep your morning huddles short, sweet, and to the point.

4. Leave a sign at your front desk. If you will be unlocking your front door before your morning huddle, be sure that patients who arrive early to your reception area know what’s going on. Jamison(5) suggests that you create and display a sign at your front desk that says something like this: “In order to be better prepared for your visit, we are in a brief team meeting. We will be with you promptly at 8:00.”

5. Lead by example. As the practice manager, expect to arrive at your office at least 15 minutes before your morning huddle begins. Ask each team member to make the same commitment. Teach your staff to come prepared for the morning huddle, as you do, not simply to show up. Ask your employees to review the day’s schedule, to anticipate potential snags and bottlenecks, and to come to the huddle ready to discuss these issues and to work out strategies collaboratively that will help.

6. Include physicians in the daily huddle. As Levitt(6) suggests, “Ideally I would like to see the doctor arrive first and pass out coffee to the staff members as they arrive! But I will settle for the doctor at least being there on time and ready to participate.” Including physicians in the morning huddle demonstrates clearly that they are part of the team.

7. Rotate huddle leaders. Levitt suggests that you rotate leaders of the huddle (daily or weekly). Doing so will give members of your team an opportunity to practice and refine their meeting facilitation skills and to present material from their own perspective.

8. Stand. Ask everyone on your team who is able-bodied to stand during your morning huddle. Standing meetings are typically shorter and more to the point than those in which everyone is seated. As Jamison aptly puts it, a morning huddle “is not a coffee break.” Standing will keep conversation short.

9. Keep your huddle agenda simple and consistent. All of your huddles should follow the same basic format. Create an agenda checklist. For example, you can designate two important purposes for your huddle. The first can be to provide a quick snapshot of how your practice did the day before. Sharing key figures will help everyone see how well you’re progressing toward your monthly goals, and what adjustments the team may need to make. A quick review of any snags you experienced in the previous day’s schedule can help you identify and solve ongoing problems. Time to reflect on what you did particularly well can also be helpful. The second purpose of the huddle can be to provide valuable information about the patients who are coming in for the day ahead, and to highlight challenges and changes to the day’s schedule. These two agenda items, coupled with some brief spirit-building comments or activities, can make for an effective morning huddle agenda.

10. Have everyone speak, if only briefly. Provide an opportunity for each person to share something quickly at each huddle about what he or she is working on. As Vrable suggests, “Vocalizing individual status updates in front of the whole team will lead to greater commitment and task accountability from each team member.” If your team is too large to allow everyone to speak each morning, be sure each member of your team speaks at least once each week.

11. Save bigger problems and discussions for longer meetings. Problem-solving requires debate, discussion, a thorough review of options, and time. When problems threaten to derail your morning huddle, schedule separate meetings to work on them, with only those team members who are concerned.

12. End on time. Use a cell phone alarm or other device to ensure that you end your meeting when you should. End with an action such as a practice handshake or special words you say that speak to your team values. Then, end your morning huddle, making sure that everyone has at least five minutes before you begin seeing patients. That will give your team time to make any changes that were discussed at the huddle and to shift gears.

References

1. Vrable A. Why the morning huddle is the best meeting you’ll ever have. May 15, 2014. Sandglaz. http://blog.sandglaz.com/how-to-run-a-morning-huddle-with-your-team/ . Accessed July 18, 2016.

2. Stewart EE, Johnson BC. Huddles: improve office efficiency in mere minutes. June 14, 2007. Fam Pract Manag. 2007 Jun;14(6):27-29. http://www.aafp.org/fpm/2007/0600/p27.html . Accessed July 18, 2014.

3. Fisher Day M. Morning huddles help improve dental team morale, productivity. Dentistry IQ. www.dentistryiq.com/articles/2013/09/morning-huddles-help-improve-dental-team-morale-productivity.html . Accessed July 18, 2016.

4. Banta L. The secret to a dynamic morning huddle. April 30, 2013. Henry Schein: Dentrix. www.dentrix.com/articles/content/id/474 . Accessed July 19, 2016.

5. Jamison L. 10 Ways to ensure that morning huddles will positively impact the dental practice. www.dentistryiq.com/articles/2013/07/10-ways-to-ensure-that-morning-huddles-will-positively-impact-the-dental-practice.html . Dental IQ. Accessed July 20, 2016.

6. Levitt MA. Expectations from your morning huddle. Jodena Consulting. www.jodena.com/expectations-from-your-morning-huddle.html . Accessed October 5, 2016.

Nine Benefits of Morning Huddles

Committing to morning huddles can help you improve and grow your medical practice in many ways. DuCharme(1) suggests that huddles can help you enjoy eight benefits:

• Better organization by planning the day instead of just letting it happen;

• Peace of mind from knowing that supplies and room set-ups are correct for the patients you’re going to see that day;

• Increased productivity by having the entire team aware of patients who are coming in that day who have not yet scheduled needed treatment and procedures. Staff members armed with that knowledge can gently encourage those patients to make the needed appointments.

• Improved profitability by identifying gaps in the schedule while there’s still time to fill them, especially if those gaps occur later in the day;

• Improved team morale by deciding who needs help throughout the day and assigning a team member to assist;

• Effective handling of patients who are particularly challenging. The clinical team will be involved in selecting the best way to handle them.

• Keeping the team informed of and working toward daily production goals; and

• Reinforcement that it is a whole-team effort to meet those production goals.

Smith(2) suggests a ninth benefit of morning huddles that may be less obvious. According to Smith, huddles do one thing remarkably well. “The doctor and the team are reminded to put on their ‘game face,’” Smith says. How comforting would it be for patients if staff members greeted them yawning, complaining how they didn’t sleep well, Smith asks. Or how would it be for patients to witness staff members arguing about petty things? Explains Smith, “During patient time, the doctor and team need to leave their baggage at the door.” The morning huddle is the perfect opportunity for everyone to do this. Adds Smith, “No one leaps out of bed with the same amount of energy each and every day. That is why the morning huddle is so important.”

References

1. DuCharme B. What is a morning huddle? Sally MacKenzie’s e-Management Newsletter. http://mckenziemgmt.com/managementtips/print/belle/PrintBelleArticle323.html. Accessed July 20, 2016.

2. Smith M. Putting on your game face: dental practice morning huddle. Fluence. May 19, 2011; www.fluenceportland.com/consulting/putting-on-your-game-face . Accessed July 26, 2016.

Four Practice Management Goals for Morning Huddles

Medical practice managers can use morning huddles as a tool to help them accomplish four important practice management goals. According to Paige,(1) these are to:

1. Motivate your employees. A morning huddle can help you send your employees back to their work areas each day with a sense of shared commitment to their tasks, to one another, and to your medical practice’s goals. You can motivate higher performance by acknowledging and reinforcing staff contributions. As well, you can encourage and applaud accomplishments and excellent communication among team members and with you. Many practice managers end the morning huddle by sharing a motivating thought for the day.

2. Teach and reinforce team values and culture. Morning huddles can help you and your staff promote your medical practice’s culture and values, such as commitment to excellent patient care and to one another. On occasion, use huddle time to bring up issues that are not directly work-related but that relate to your practice values and may impact employee performance. For example, use your huddle to solve an employee’s temporary transportation problem by arranging a ride to and from work with a coworker. Or if a team member is out sick, use huddle time to pass around a card for everyone to sign.

3. Review your day’s schedule. Make sure that your employees leave the huddle knowing how their daily tasks fit in with their coworkers’ goals for the day.

4. Review upcoming housekeeping concerns. Remind your staff about employees who are taking time off so that everyone knows who will be performing in what roles on any given day.

Reference

1. Paige A. Topics for morning huddle in the workplace. Chron. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/topics-morning-huddles-workplace-18001.html . Accessed July 20, 2016.

Eight Fun Ideas for Morning Huddles

If you’ve been using morning huddles in your medical practice for some time, you may be looking for new ways to spice things up. Here are eight fresh and fun ideas for you to try:

1. Announce a contest. For example, create and announce a competition within the team with prizes for top performers. Or simply announce that if your team meets a certain goal you’ll treat them all to lunch. Another idea: Hold a tongue twister competition. Divide your staff into at least two groups and assign them tongue twisters to memorize. Have one employee recite the assigned tongue twister at each huddle, and time him or her. The group that takes the least amount of time in total will be the winner of the competition.

2. Teach your staff members a new skill that will help them. This can be a very quick lesson—under five minutes. Examples: How and why to answer the phone with a smile. How to shake hands. How and when to use the patient’s name in conversation more often.

3. Feature one staff member at each huddle. Give that employee three minutes to share something about him- or herself that others probably don’t know. In time, you’ll learn a lot more about one another.

4. Pair them up. Ask paired employees to perform a task. Examples: Find three new things you have in common. Share one interesting thing that the other person doesn’t know about you. Come up with one new and different idea for our staff holiday party.

5. Tell a lame joke. You can bring the joke if you like. Or assign staff members the task of preparing and sharing a corny or lame joke with the team. Just be sure that you set some guidelines about what would be an appropriate joke.

6. Sing a song. It may take a little doing to get your staff to sing with you, but group singing can be a fantastic morale builder. Patriotic songs, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and other easy songs generally encourage singing. Or bring a karaoke machine to your practice and see what happens.

7. Hold a show-and-tell. Have one team member per day bring an item to your practice to share with the rest of the team. Give him or her one or two minutes to introduce and talk about the item.

8. Play a “minute to win it” game. Ask your staff members to compete while performing some simple task for one minute. For example, empty one or more bags of miniature marshmallows or small candies onto a table. Ask everyone to stand around the table, each team member equipped with a pair of chopsticks and a small container. Give your team one minute to see how many marshmallows or candies they can put in their containers, moving only one piece at a time with the chopsticks. The staff member with the most items in the container at the end of the minute wins a prize.

Three Strategies to Get Team Buy-In for Morning Huddles

You may encounter some resistance when you introduce the morning huddle into your medical practice for the first time. After all, few employees are looking for a new meeting that they must attend, especially one that occurs every day bright and early. Therefore, if this is a new strategy in your medical practice, use these three strategies to reduce resistance to your morning huddles:

1. Get top-down support. It is essential that you get the top management in your medical practice behind the huddle from the start. Their commitment to the short daily meeting will show everyone that the meeting is important and that, at least in their opinion, it is a worthwhile use of time.

2. Don’t call it a huddle. Some employees may be resistant to a meeting called a huddle. As Anderson(1) explains, “Yes, teams huddle on the field, but it’s a brief meeting where one person calls the play and everyone yells ‘break.’” Anderson warns that your staff may reason that a medical practice is not like football. He suggests that you may have more success with the huddle concept if you call the meeting by another name. Says Anderson, “The most effective teams we have worked with don’t have a morning huddle at all. They have transformed the “‘get together and call the play of the day’ morning huddle into something we have coined the ‘Morning Opportunity Meeting,’ or M.O.M. for short.” The primary quality of the M.O.M. is its middle name—opportunity, Anderson says. That idea seems to sit especially well with employees, he says.

3. Explain why you’re huddling. Share the benefits of the morning huddle with your team. That way, they will be more likely to support the idea. Otherwise, they may think you’re using the huddle time just to check up on them or to put pressure on them.

Reference

1. Anderson SJ. No more morning huddle. October 12, 2010. Henry Schein Dental. www.henryschein.com/us-en/dental/SalesCon/article_NoMoreMorningHuddle.aspx . Accessed October 5, 2016.