Huddle library → The huddle before the huddle
Recurring · 90 seconds
The huddle before the huddle
Ninety seconds between the supervisors, before the whole team huddle starts, so the team huddle doesn't turn into three people figuring out the plan in front of everyone.
The problem
The full team huddle runs better when it's confident and short. It runs badly when the charge nurse, the supervisor and the resource person are visibly working out staffing or assignments live, in front of the group, because they never synced first. The team notices, and it reads as nobody being in charge.
How to run it
- Whoever's leading the shift finds the other one or two people who need to be aligned — ninety seconds, standing, before the doors open to everyone else.
- Cover exactly three things: who's out, what's different about today, and anything that needs to be said carefully rather than just announced.
- Walk into the real huddle already agreeing on the plan. Disagreement happens in the ninety seconds, not in front of the team.
Why it's worth protecting
It costs less time than it takes to read this page, and it's the difference between a huddle that sounds like a plan and one that sounds like three people discovering the day at the same time as everyone else.