Weekly stand up meeting

[Shirkahn]

For the past few month I have been trying to get the best out of my employees at so called shop floor meeting. Once a week we stand at our white board and discuss tasks past, in progress and what needs to be escalated.

Everyone has to present his 2 new top tasks for the week, discuss uncompleted previous weeks tasks and mention any topic that needs to be escalated. The 2 top task are over and above all standard tasks - so basically the 2 most important ones per month.

We use a kanban system on our board but all in all I feel some resistance from the employees and I don't feel its really effective - bottom line related. I also have the issue of some employees travelling etc.

I have an idea of digitizing the board via an online kanban system that anyone can access and that we can discuss life at our shop floors.

Any thoughts or ideas you guys have pertaining to a more effective weekly stand-up meeting?

 

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[BelgianDude]

How many employees are attending the standup meeting? How long does the meeting last?

I was one of those employees who was hesistant about these meetings. We did these meetings daily with a group of 20-25 employees. A number of employees were short and to the point, but most were long-winded and talked about irrelevant matters. This resulted in meetings of 30 to 45 minutes per day with little valuable input.

As a solution, the large group is split into smaller groups. A small group represented employees who often worked together. Sometimes an employee was also part of several small groups.

This ensured that the meetings were shortened to 5 - 10 minutes and that the information that was told was more relevant for everyone.

 

[Shirkahn]

HI Belgiandude, max 13 employees attend and the meeting takes 30 to 45 minutes.

My question is what is relevant? I also have employees discussing unimportant items as if they are trying to justify or show that they are doing work.

How many employees are attending the standup meeting? How long does the meeting last?

I was one of those employees who was hesistant about these meetings. We did these meetings daily with a group of 20-25 employees. A number of employees were short and to the point, but most were long-winded and talked about irrelevant matters. This resulted in meetings of 30 to 45 minutes per day with little valuable input.

As a solution, the large group is split into smaller groups. A small group represented employees who often worked together. Sometimes an employee was also part of several small groups.

This ensured that the meetings were shortened to 5 - 10 minutes and that the information that was told was more relevant for everyone.

 

[ZCP]

read through the suggestions in Chet Holmes Ultimate Selling Machine. It will help w/ numbers and structure for the meeting. BEST thing we ever did in the engineering company!

 

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[Shirkahn]

read through the suggestions in Chet Holmes Ultimate Selling Machine. It will help w/ numbers and structure for the meeting. BEST thing we ever did in the engineering company!

Thanks, ironically they are all engineers!
Going to buy the book today,

 

[Kid]

digitizing the board

trello.com seems to have free version even for teams.

 

[Scalr]

What tool are you using for kanban?

From personal experience: The long winded answers and drifting into off-topic discussions is super common. Engineers solve difficult problems, there is always something to discuss. These discussions usually mean that there are other people that have to sit and wait until it is their turn... they get bored and thus, they question the usefulness of the meeting. I have yet to work with a team of engineers that doesn't fall into that spiral.

Here is what works for me:

1. You must believe that this meeting is valuable. There are many reasons why regular stand-ups are. You need to find out what it is for you. If your engs think that you don't believe 100% that this is useful, they all feel like waisting their time.

2. No excuses. People need to show up. If someone is missing, message them and have team mates message them. Accountability. (Unless they are sick obv.) but if you get this right, they will let you know in advance if they can't make it. Else, they show up. If they travel across timezones, they need to at least have an email sent BEFORE standup with their update.

3. Limited speaking time. This is the hard part - it feels bad to cut them off. But think about it this way - your other guys that work on unrelated tasks, sit there and wait. Do everyone a favor and limit people's speaking time.

But there is important stuff that must be discussed... I know, a good way to do it:

As soon as someone goes too deep or long, cut them and make it a breakout topic. Write it down on a board (or digital) and the name of the person. When the standup is over, everyone that has a breakout topic stays and gets together with people that need to discuss it. If you don't have a breakout - you can go back to work.

If there is always a LOT to discuss, maybe increase the frequency.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck

 

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[Shirkahn]

I like you last point on the breakout topics - will definitely introduce that.
Currently I am using a partitioned white board (Top task for the week, uncompleted from last week, and complete) We use sticky notes, each person or department has a color and put the tasks on it in the correct partition. This I want to digitize with a 55" touchscreen using trello - this will also allow the travelers to access the board in real time.

Thanks for the input.

What tool are you using for kanban?

Hope this is helpful. Good luck

 

[Shirkahn]

trello.com seems to have free version even for teams.

trello works very well although we moved to wekan because its securer as its loaded on our server and only our employees can access it.

 

[Kid]

trello works very well although we moved to wekan because its securer as its loaded on our server and only our employees can access it.

Yeah, sure, i didn't know that wekan is still active.

 

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[Jsoh]

For the past few month I have been trying to get the best out of my employees at so called shop floor meeting. Once a week we stand at our white board and discuss tasks past, in progress and what needs to be escalated.

Everyone has to present his 2 new top tasks for the week, discuss uncompleted previous weeks tasks and mention any topic that needs to be escalated. The 2 top task are over and above all standard tasks - so basically the 2 most important ones per month.

We use a kanban system on our board but all in all I feel some resistance from the employees and I don't feel its really effective - bottom line related. I also have the issue of some employees travelling etc.

I have an idea of digitizing the board via an online kanban system that anyone can access and that we can discuss life at our shop floors.

Any thoughts or ideas you guys have pertaining to a more effective weekly stand-up meeting?

Hey Shirkhan,

We do daily "Scrum" sessions that last from anywhere between 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Team leaders are responsible for highlighting the important things going on in their respective department.

Using Whatsapp we upload a video of the meeting, but you can really do a live call through Zoom that your employees can hop onto and be apart of (even if they aren't there). All you gotta do is setup a webcam or a computer and they can hop right into the meeting and be there without "being there".

Zoom is a great tool for virtual meeting rooms, 1 on 1's, and webinar trainings.

If possible I highly recommend a "daily scrum" because it keeps the focus point there and it brings your team together through repetition of being with each other everyday and that leads to people being curious and accepting the format which leads to more a engaged team.

That's at least how it works for us... And my team is actively involved.

 

[MHP368]

You ever read "clockwork" by michalowicz?

Maybe instead of top tasks and kanban you need to figure out the companies "queen bee role" and relate what they do to that.

 

[Shirkahn]

You ever read "clockwork" by michalowicz?

Maybe instead of top tasks and kanban you need to figure out the companies "queen bee role" and relate what they do to that.

No I have not but will check it out. Thanks

 

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