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Staff Communication Sharing Vehicles: The Huddle

Ask the Experts:

We are looking to increase communications and share information among our staff members. Are there any methods that really work?

This is a great question as it lends itself to improving internal communications among individuals and staff departments.

Recently, a conversation on the ASAE Consultants list serve brought several ideas to the table. One example that several participants used was the concept of a timely “Huddle” or coffee break to share information.

It brought to mind a best practice that we observed among some Baldrige National Quality Award applicants to demonstrate how they communicated both horizontally and vertically within the organization. In reviewing cases for the Baldrige program, many of the applicants use the “huddle” approach to sharing information with the team. A few have an elaborate, integrated sharing scheme used from top to bottom and visa versa, where teams throughout the organization huddle early and pass along key information daily or several times a week.

Many of these “huddles” are brief coffee type huddles and need only a few minutes as they are daily so there is not a load of information to share. Some are every other day or longer depending on the speed with which things change around the organization. For example, the huddle concept seems to work extremely well in health care environments with multiple shift work for sharing immediate information. Since most of the organizations, which apply for the Baldrige award (including many nonprofits) are fairly well run units, the huddle approach is probably a good technique to try out within your organization to see whether it fits or not.At the very least it gets folks out of their cubicles for a stretch and some personal interaction, which is always a good thing!

Stephen C. Carey Ph.D., CAE, Lead Strategist

Association Management + Marketing Resources

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