Keep the weekly rhythm.

Two things happen every week.

The weekly check-in is a short update each person makes on Monday. They go through their climbs, mark each one on track, off track, or done, tick the milestones they’ve finished, and raise anything in their way. It takes about five minutes.

The huddle is each team’s weekly meeting. It lasts one hour, happens at the same time every week, and follows the same agenda every time. The check-ins come first, so the team starts the huddle already knowing where every climb stands and can spend most of the hour on issues.

Check in on Monday, in about five minutes.

Open the check-in and take your climbs one at a time. For each climb:

• Choose on track, off track, or done.
• Tick the milestones you’ve finished since last Monday.
• Raise an issue for anything in the way that you can’t sort out on your own.

Check in every week, even when nothing has changed, so every status your team sees was set that week.

An honest status is about the finish.

On track means you expect to finish the climb by its due date. Off track means you don’t. The status is about the finish, so it doesn’t depend on how much of the quarter is left. If something in week two means you won’t finish on time, the climb is off track in week two.

Done means the climb is finished and its done when line is true. You can mark a climb done once every milestone is ticked or removed.

Setting a climb to off track early gives your team the most time to help. When you do, raise an issue that says what’s in the way, so the team can work on it in the huddle.

Try it with five of Halden’s climbs. Choose the status you would set, then read why.

Status and pace are different things.

Headwater also marks a climb as behind pace when its progress is more than 25 points behind the share of the quarter that has gone. Pace is worked out from the ticks. Status is the owner’s judgement, so a climb can be behind pace and on track, like the barista training, or ahead of pace and off track, like the trade reps.

Hold the huddle after the check-ins.

The huddle uses the statuses from that week’s check-ins. If it starts before people have checked in, the climbs step shows last week’s statuses, and issues raised in the check-in aren’t on the list yet. People then read out their updates, and that time comes out of the issues step.

Choose a time late on Monday morning or later in the week, and ask everyone to check in before it. Halden’s Wholesale team checks in first thing on Monday and huddles at 10:00. Drag the huddle to an earlier time to see what the team would find.

Once the time is set, keep it. When the huddle is at the same time every week, nobody has to arrange it, and people plan their week around it.

Off-track climbs go to the issues list.

Nobody reads statuses out in a huddle, because they’re already on the screen. When a climb is off track, its owner adds it to the issues list, or points to the issue they raised in the check-in. The team ranks it with the other issues and works on it in order. The issues step is covered in full in step five.

Everyone rates the huddle.

Before the huddle ends, everyone rates it from 1 to 10. The score is for the meeting, including whether it started and ended on time, kept to the agenda, and solved the issues that mattered most.

When someone gives a low score, ask them what would have made it better, and agree one change for next week. If the average drops over several weeks, look at which step has started to run over.

Keep the rhythm when people are away.

Hold the huddle every week, even when some of the team can’t come. If it can’t happen on its usual day, move it to another day that week. A skipped week means the climbs go a fortnight without a team review, and the next issues list has two weeks of problems on it.

Pick a situation to see how Halden’s Wholesale team handles it.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Holding the huddle before the check-insThe climbs step shows last week’s statuses, so people read out updates and the time comes out of issues.
• Calling a climb on track because it’s earlyStatus is about whether you’ll finish by the due date. A problem in week two that stops you finishing makes the climb off track in week two.
• Discussing off-track climbs in the climbs stepEach discussion takes minutes from the issues step. Add the climb to the issues list and work on it in ranked order.
• Letting the first three steps run overThe huddle still ends after an hour, so every extra minute on wins, initiatives, or climbs is a minute less on issues.
• Skipping a weekWhen people are away, change who comes or which day it’s on. The team still meets that week.
• Rating the huddle and moving onAsk anyone who gives a low score what would have made it better, and agree one change for next week.

Check your weekly rhythm.

• Every team has a huddle at a fixed time each week, after the Monday check-ins.
• Everyone knows to check in before their huddle.
• Everyone checks in on every climb each week, including weeks when nothing has changed.
• Off-track climbs go to the issues list instead of being discussed in the climbs step.
• The huddle starts on time, ends on time, and gives issues 40 minutes.
• Everyone rates each huddle, and the team talks about low scores.
• Each team has agreed who starts the huddle when its lead is away.