HR Mavericks

Eddy’s HR Mavericks Encyclopedia

Daily Standup Meeting

A daily standup meeting is a great opportunity for the whole team to get an overview of what the entire team is doing. This brings team members together who might not normally work closely. This meeting helps prompt team communication and collaboration.

What Is a Daily Standup Meeting?

A daily standup meeting is a short meeting critical for development teams. It’s held every day at the same time and is called a standup meeting because people usually stand to keep it short. It’s a chance for the whole team to discuss and coordinate their efforts for the day. It’s important for each team member to come prepared to share their completed projects and current challenges, which requires everyone to be intentional in their daily work.

Why Are Daily Standup Meetings Important?

Daily standup meetings are important for different team members to communicate and share information. The meeting’s intention is to allow team members to align their actions. These are other benefits that come with holding daily standup meetings.
  • Team cohesion and strengthened commitment. Daily standup meetings allow employees to share with their peers what they are learning and inspire, energize and motivate other team members.
  • Quick identification and resolution of problems. The standup meeting allows the team to work more frequently and regularly together on projects. This fosters better coordination and interactions as a team.
  • Awareness of job status. During daily standup meetings, team members can give status updates on their projects to keep the team up to date.
  • Effective communication. Daily standup meetings help team members to be more effective in their group decisions and communication.

What Information Should Be Included in a Daily Standup Meeting?

In a typical daily standup meeting, team members share what they did the day before, their goals for that day, and any potential challenge they might see.

What You Should Include

  • Problems and solutions. During the daily standup meeting, team members appreciate having an opportunity to focus on problem-solving and finding quick solutions together as a team. When communicating, be sure to define the problem and possible solutions. Because problems may arise that require more time and effort than a 15-minute standup meeting, take notes of problems and employees involved with the problem to coordinate a longer meeting to address them later.
  • Unique team needs. A challenge of having daily standup meetings is knowing what to share with others. It takes time to know your team and know what will be useful to share. Over time and with practice, you can improve these meetings by including the needs unique to your team.
  • Insights into your team dynamics. Being involved in the day-to-day work and solving problems will encourage your team members to talk with you and with one another. This will help you to focus on what is useful to your team members and increase meeting attendance and participation. Team members want you to be interested in not only what they have done but what they are going to do.

What You Shouldn’t Include

  • Too much discussion. It’s great to share work goals for the day and if you need help with anything. If further discussion is needed, coordinate further discussion outside of the standup meeting.
  • A late start. Start the meeting on time regardless of latecomers. You don’t want to waste their time.
  • Rambling Communication. Each team member should be intentional and use brevity in what they communicate to the team.

How to Run an Effective Daily Standup Meeting

We can all appreciate a well-run meeting. A daily standup can be a tough one to make beneficial and efficient for all team members.

Step 1: Schedule the Meeting

Standup meetings are usually held in the morning. Decide how often you will hold a daily standup meeting and the length of the meeting. Be sure to send a calendar invite to each team member as a reminder for the meeting so you don’t run into scheduling conflicts. Think about when all team members are present and begin work. It will be critical to be aware of your team members' needs and start on time so they don’t feel like the meeting is interrupting their workflow.

Step 2: Decide Who Comes to the Meeting

Usually those who attend a standup meeting are the team manager and team members. If there are projects taking place involving other departments, you can invite employees from those departments to participate.

Step 3: Plan How to Include All Team Members

You want your team members to feel like they are contributing. During the daily standup meeting, it will be critical to give all team members an opportunity to speak. Junior members may find all information beneficial and answer their questions quickly, while questions presented by senior members may require more expertise and time.

Step 4: Find Avenues to Address Items Not Discussed in Daily Standups.

There is a lot of information that all team members need and sometimes a standup meeting is not the best avenue to share it. One idea is to use a whiteboard to give status updates from the day before so all team members can see progress on others’ projects. This is especially helpful if nothing has changed from the day before.

Step 5: Learn Facilitation Skills

A good facilitator learns how to delegate time, helps all team members voice concerns and progress, and understands how to keep the flow of the conversation going. Allow some or all team members to have an opportunity to facilitate the meeting. Shared leadership will help employees feel a sense of ownership and foster trust, commitment, and cohesion. Using different facilitators decreases the likelihood of the standup meeting becoming a status report.

Step 6: Plan What to Talk About

You could spend time talking about the future projects and the dependencies and challenges team members potentially see. You could also discuss and solve simple problems to make quick decisions. Create a template of an agenda to follow each standup meeting.
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Emily Kranendonk

Emily Kranendonk

Emily is the HR Manager for PatientBond. She is the excited for the opportunity of creating an HR department with her current employer. Emily pursued a Master's in Human Resources from USU and comes with 4 years of experience from various companies. Emily serves as the Director of Social Media for the Salt Lake SHRM chapter.
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