End of the huddle: Are we in danger of losing face-to-face comms?
By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum 
Every morning at 10am without fail, the group heads at Melcrum will have a huddle. And considering many people here either run, cycle or commute to work on the London underground and that medical experts are warning of a widespread outbreak of swine flu as the winter months draw in, this may all sound rather unhygienic, but unless you’ve tried it, that’s where you’d be wrong. When better to set the tone for the working day than first thing in the morning, a time when everyone’s fresh (minded) and raring to go.
The first rule of the huddle is to, well, huddle. In simple terms this entails gathering in a small circle with one member of the team leading the way. Whether he or she is called the ‘huddler’ is neither here nor there, call them whatever you like, but above all the leader must always maintain control and ensure brevity. The huddle must not last more than 10 minutes. That would be more muddle than huddle.
It is also key to remember that a huddle is not a discussion but a series of statements mentioned and listened to attentively by the key members of the company, something many CEOs could perhaps adopt in order to have a better understanding of what their line managers do on a daily basis. If they had embraced this form of communication it may well have saved the jobs, careers and foundations of many of the world’s workers, executives and iconic businesses that have now crumpled into a sorry, recessionary heap.
Putting the recession to one side, the huddle leader then goes round each member of the group asking each individual what he or she is working on that day. The group leader may then ask for a short daily sales report or any outstanding achievements, events, or queries to be announced but this is also done strictly in turn and in the same order. This is finally followed by the leader then questioning each huddle member on whether or not they are facing any potential ‘blocks’, or problems that could prevent them from carrying out their daily duties. Anything else is then taken offline and worked on separately.
Social networking
The explosion of social networking and platforms such as Yammer, however, got me thinking about whether or not we need huddles any more? Having access to the internet, 3G mobile phones, endless iPhone applications, email, Twitter, instant messaging, texting, voicemail, video on demand, and even the now prehistoric but still essential conference call allows us to communicate whenever we want, from wherever we want and with whoever we want. Not only that, we can use whatever method we choose because the majority of professionals have access to all this technology for virtually no cost whatsoever.
But unlike the blinkered 1990s vision of a paperless office (he says printing this off), essentially doing business and communicating with someone without ever meeting them during your working career could eventually happen. Just ask yourself how many times someone has said to you, “it’s great to finally meet you after all those emails”, or “I never realised you looked like that in real life?” Real life? People have forgotten what it’s like to meet and simply don’t have as much face time as they used to. And, year after year, this trend is increasing.
On the flipside, however this can have its advantages. Take Yammer for instance, a closed corporate network that allows you to connect with all your colleagues via a website, pop-up desktop application and/or mobile phone app and to continually share with your colleagues what work or even social activities you are doing that day, week or month. You could be in IT fixing the server that runs the entire operation, or in sales and in need of volunteers for a cross-country charity cycle ride or perhaps in HR carrying out a series of interviews for a key senior of the team who has just left. The point is that everyone in your network has real-time access to the events and actions of their colleagues day in, day out. At Melcrum we’re using it as an experiment and the amount of knowledge sharing, ideas and information you learn about the business and each other is invaluable. Using a tool like Yammer allows you to communicate to your colleagues simply, cost-free and with messages targeted specifically to them and their network. I’ll be sharing this blog link with my colleagues the instant it goes online.
Yammer serves the same purpose as a huddle but in this case is arguably more transparent and messaging is not restricted to a small number of senior leaders. However, face-to-face contact and that instant sharing of crucial first thing in the morning, targeted information is immediately lost. Many communicators have faced or are facing huge budget cuts and being told that face-to-face communication is the most effective form of comms during a recession, but is it really? Surely in this tech-savvy day and age real-time online conversations then lead to an increase in information sharing and eventually personal contact? I’d be very keen to see any research on how effective online conversations are compared to face-to-face meetings.
There is, however, no instant solution. Each company has its own culture, needs, and Web 2.0 experience levels. The common answer to a successful internal communications strategy is to use a combination of communication channels. Many companies now use a blend of blogs, conference calls, live question and answer video streaming with the executive board as well as face-to-face meetings, but despite this leap forwards one still has to question, how effective this all is, where this is all heading and how we will be communicating within our organizations in the future.
Now that I’ve blogged and not physically spoken to any of you before I’d better get on with the rest of my day.
Please email me with any thoughts to: james.bennett@melcrum.com, find me on Twitter or log onto Melcrum's Twitter feed.
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