On Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8:45 a.m., the Huddle Leader’s music of choice can be heard throughout the offices at Tower Trust & Investment Company.
Although Huddle Meetings are nothing new to business leaders, the Tower Trust team has found the consistency of a short, structured, company-wide meeting to be a tremendous tool in building a team that communicates through the stresses of a busy workweek.
In today’s fast-paced work environment, teams are expected to move quickly and deliver results, but it’s important that communication doesn’t become siloed within respective work groups and/or teams. Camaraderie suffers when the staff doesn’t have a platform to share successes at the office or personal news beyond the workplace.
Our Huddles are 10- to 15-minute stand-up meetings with the primary goal of sharing experiences, improving communication, and keeping everyone in the loop on what’s happening across the organization. Team members take turns being the Huddle Leader.
Each meeting starts with an uplifting song of the Huddle Leader’s choice … new country artists, “old school” rock and roll, collegiate fight songs. We even had a Huddle Leader use AI to create a song that incorporated the name of each member of the staff.
Both days include ‘shout-outs’ thanking another team member for going above and beyond or congratulating someone on an accomplishment. We also use this time to share news about personal achievements or those of our families.
Tuesdays are focused on sharing organizational information. This includes upcoming marketing activities, focused efforts of each work group in the coming week, and client needs that will impact multiple work groups. Tuesdays also include a catch-all open forum for all team members to contribute, called “Making Tower Better”.
Thursday’s Huddle shifts the focus to culture development. The weekly Huddle Leader develops a team-building exercise with the only guideline being a 10 to 15-minute timeframe. They have come up with really creative activities, such as mini-hoop free throw contests during March Madness and Halloween trivia with treats for winners. We have even used Thursday’s meeting as a book club with weekly chapter discussions.
It is hard to believe that Huddle Meetings have been part of our organization for over 10 years. It continues to be a great way to connect our team. Everyone from the people who attended the very first Huddle Meeting a decade ago to the less tenured members of our team finds them valuable.
We look forward to the next 10 years.
Cody Allen, CRSP, is the president of Tower Trust & Investment Company, Davenport. He can be reached at [email protected].
