How Company-Wide, Daily Stand Up Huddles Increase Performance, Boost Culture, and Decrease Overall Time in Meetings

In a world where endless meetings often sap energy and productivity, a simple, time-tested solution has been consistently deployed at many high-performing organizations: the daily huddle. A standing meeting that lasts just 5 to 15 minutes, these focused gatherings at every level of an organization can dramatically boost communication, clear obstacles early, reinforce culture, and, contrary to popular belief, actually reduce the overall time spent in meetings.

Speeding Up Communication and Clearing Blockers

Daily huddles are designed for rapid, targeted communication. Starting at the same time every day, each participant shares:

• Quick good news
• How they are tracking on their #1 KPI
• What they are focusing on in the next 24 hours
• Any “stucks”, or roadblocks they have hit
• Example of someone living one of the company’s core values

This structure ensures that people stay connected through sharing of positive good news, that performance stays on track, and that blockers are identified early so they can be solved quickly outside of the daily huddle.  As a result, productivity skyrockets.

Reinforcing Culture and Recognizing Success

Beyond operational benefits, daily huddles are a powerful tool for building and maintaining a strong organizational culture. They offer a regular opportunity to highlight wins, recognize employees who embody core values, and celebrate team achievements. This daily reinforcement of positive behaviors and shared goals helps create a sense of unity and purpose, boosting morale and engagement across the company.

Companies like the The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. have institutionalized the daily huddle as a key element of their culture. Every day, 35,000 Ritz-Carlton employees participate in some form of huddle, using the time to align on service standards, share success stories, and ensure everyone feels connected to the company’s mission. Similarly, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? credits its daily huddle practice as a critical factor in scaling its business and maintaining a vibrant, values-driven culture as the company grew rapidly.

Reducing Meeting Overload and Improving Weekly Meetings

One of the most compelling advantages of daily huddles is their ability to actually decrease the total time spent in meetings. By addressing tactical issues, quick updates, and immediate challenges each day, teams can reserve longer weekly meetings for strategic discussions and deeper problem-solving. This shift not only makes weekly meetings more focused and valuable but also eliminates the need for many ad hoc check-ins and status updates that often clutter calendars.

Research and company case studies consistently show that when daily huddles are implemented well, organizations see a measurable drop in unnecessary meetings and a rise in overall productivity. For example, Intermountain Health, which operates 23 hospitals and 170 clinics, uses a tiered daily huddle structure to escalate information efficiently from front-line teams to executive leadership, ensuring that issues are resolved quickly and that valuable meeting time is not wasted. *

Making the Daily Huddle Work

The key to successful daily huddles is consistency and discipline. Meetings should be held with everyone standing up, must be under 15 minutes in length, start at the same time each day, and follow a clear agenda: good news, metrics update, focus for the next 24 hours, any blockers to be aware of, and recognition. Everyone gets a turn.

Leaders like John D. Rockefeller and Steve Jobs have long relied on this rhythm to drive execution and foster innovation. Additionally, Verne Harnish in his book “Scaling Up” highlighted that many higher performing companies leverage daily huddles throughout the organizations.  It is time for your organization to do the same, at all levels.  Start with the executive team and stick to it through the awkward first few weeks of doing it. And while many leaders resist the change due to an incorrect view that daily huddles are micro-managing, it is actually the opposite.  Sharing progress, clearing blockers and celebrating others daily drives greater cultural alignment, higher productivity, decreased time in meetings overall, and as a result improved job satisfaction.

*” How a U.S. Health Care System Uses 15-Minute Huddles to Keep 23 Hospitals Aligned”, Harvard Business Review, November 29, 2018