Each morning at Grunder Landscaping, we spend 5 minutes on our morning huddle with our entire production team. Our team members know to be standing in a circle for us to start our huddle promptly at 7 a.m.
Since we started doing this morning huddle, we've noticed that devoting time to this has actually reduced our overall indirect time. No one wants to be the one person late to join the circle and we've used this morning time to reinforce our mission and the training we regularly do.
Each morning, all of our production team members, group leaders, and the leadership team are present for a quick huddle that follows this format:
Recite the Vision, Mission, and Core Values
We ask team members what they're doing to exemplify the core values
We stretch
Recap the takeaways from trainings the week before
Share any shoutouts or compliments from clients and other team members, if it's a team member's birthday Marty sings to them
Reminders for the team, including for safety and quality standards
Teams disperse, with a brief huddle between managers and direct reports if it's needed
It's quick, we keep it on time, and we're done in less than 5 minutes. It's a way for us to reinforce our company culture in the small amount of time each day that our team is all together in one place, and it gives us a platform to always be teaching and improving as a team.
As you look at your morning routine, do you already do a morning huddle? How could you make it more effective or efficient? Should you set a timer to keep it on time? If you don't do a morning huddle, consider adding it to your daily schedule.
Have a great week!
Marty Grunder
President & CEO
Grunder Landscaping & The Grow Group
P.S. Have you signed up to join us at the NALP Field Trip June 23-24 yet? This year, we'll go behind the scenes at R.P. Marzilli to learn everything about their business. We'll see first-hand how they maintain quality on large projects, use relationships to close sales and find skilled team members to do the work. I hope to see you in Boston this summer!