The five-minute huddle that starts the day right

What a huddle is, and what it is not

A huddle is a short, standing, same-time-every-day check before the work starts. Its job is to get every person out the door knowing the same things.

• It is not the weekly meeting. The weekly meeting looks back at the week and works the problems. The huddle looks at today only. See the weekly meeting guide for that one.
• It is not a lecture. If the owner talks for the whole five minutes, the crew stops listening by the second week.
• It is not where problems get solved. A problem that comes up gets written down and taken to the right person or the weekly meeting. The huddle keeps moving.

Four things to say every morning

1. Today's jobs, and who is on each one. Addresses, start times, and the customer's name.
2. What changed since yesterday. A delivery that moved, a customer who called to reschedule, a truck that is in the shop.
3. One thing to watch. A safety reminder, a quality point from yesterday, or a customer who asked for something specific. One, not five.
4. Who to call when something goes wrong. If the owner is on a sales call all morning, name the person who is not.

Then ask one question: does anyone need anything to start? Answer it or assign it, and send everyone out.

Keep it to five minutes

• Same time and same place every day, even when it feels unnecessary. A huddle that happens only on busy days becomes a sign that something is wrong.
• Standing up. Nobody settles in.
• The person running it talks least. Read the four things, then let the crew speak.
• Park anything that needs more than a minute. Write it down, say who will handle it and by when, and move on.
• Start on time when people are missing. Waiting teaches everyone that the start time is a suggestion.

When the crew does not start in one place

Many home service crews leave from home and go straight to the first job. A standing huddle does not work there, so write it instead.

• Post the same four things in writing before the first start time, in one place everyone checks.
• Ask each person to confirm they have read it. A thumbs-up is enough. The point is that you know who has seen it before someone drives to the wrong address.
• Keep it short enough to read on a phone in a parked truck. If it scrolls, it is too long.
• A short video works well here. Thirty seconds of the owner saying what matters today is heard by people who skip a paragraph.

Name the backup

Every morning, say who covers when you cannot be reached, with their phone number. Owners skip this because it feels obvious. It is only obvious to the owner.

A crew that knows who to call makes the small decisions without waiting for you. That is most of what getting off the truck means in practice: not that you stop working, but that the work stops waiting on you.

Close the day, too

An end-of-day check is the huddle's other half, and it can be even shorter:

• What got done today.
• What is left, and where it stands.
• What tomorrow's first job needs that it does not have yet.

Done consistently, the end of today becomes most of tomorrow's huddle.

Four ways a huddle dies

• It becomes the owner's daily speech. Fix it by reading the four things and then asking the crew what they need.
• It turns into a problem-solving session that runs twenty minutes. Fix it by writing the problem down and naming who takes it after.
• It only happens when the owner is there. Fix it by handing it to a lead one day a week, so the crew learns the huddle belongs to them.
• Nobody can tell whether anyone read it. Fix it by asking for a confirmation every day, and following up with the person who did not.

Copy this huddle

Start of day, five minutes, same time every day.

1. Today's jobs and who is on each one
2. What changed since yesterday
3. One thing to watch
4. Who to call, and their number
5. Does anyone need anything to start?

Posting it in GameTime OS

In GameTime OS, the Start of Day is a post the owner or a general manager writes once a day. Teammates with their own logins read it at the top of their screen and press Got it, so you can see who has. The post carries your own status for the day and a backup picked from your team, with their phone number, and you can add short morning videos of up to 60 seconds for the crew to watch.