What goes on a huddle board
- Measures: a few numbers the team can influence today, with targets and a trend, often grouped as safety, quality, delivery, cost and people.
- Problems: issues raised since the last huddle, each with an owner.
- Actions: what is being done, by whom, by when; overdue items stand out.
- Today's plan: priorities, staffing, known risks.
- Escalations: what was sent up and what came back.
- Recognition and ideas: improvements suggested and completed.
Laying out a huddle board
Arrange it in the order the huddle runs: safety first, then performance, actions, plan, problems and escalations. Keep it readable from two metres. Leave more space for actions and problems than for charts; a board that is all charts becomes wallpaper.
Running the huddle from the board
Ten minutes, standing, same time and place every day. The facilitator walks the board in order, every red gets a question and an owner, and anything the team cannot resolve is escalated rather than debated. The board is updated as things happen through the day, so tomorrow's huddle starts from current facts.
Keeping a huddle board alive
- Agree who updates each section and when.
- Rotate the facilitator once the routine is stable.
- Review the layout every few months as problems change.
- Audit it: a leader on a gemba walk checks that the board matches the floor.
Physical or digital
A whiteboard is quick to start and keeps the team's hands on it. A digital huddle board keeps measures live, carries actions and escalations to the next tier automatically, works across shifts and sites, and keeps the history that shows which problems repeat.