Dan Whitfield is Head of Cafés at Halden Coffee. He runs four cafés, in Leeds, Harrogate, Sheffield, and Durham, and a fifth opens in York in March. In Headwater each café is a team with its own climbs, issues, and weekly huddle, and every one of them works to the company’s plan.
- Host the York team for two weeksGAOn trackCafésFit out the York café
- Train the Leeds team on the winter menuBCOn trackCafésLaunch the winter menu in every café
- 1Grinder keeps jammingGA16 days
- 2Oat milk runs out by Saturday lunchPN5 days
When each site keeps its own lists and meets when it can, every café ends up working on whatever its manager thinks matters most. In Headwater, each café is a team. It has its own climbs, its own issues list, and a weekly huddle at a time that suits the café.
The four managers are also in the Cafés team with Dan and Aisha. That team huddles on Thursday afternoon, and each manager joins from their own café on the same screen.
A café climb can support a Cafés climb or a company climb. Its milestones then count towards the climb it supports, so the work in each café shows in the progress of the plan above it.
- GAGrace Leeds
- BCBen Shift lead
- PNPriti Shift lead
- Host the York team for two weeksGAOn trackCafésFit out the York café
- Train the Leeds team on the winter menuBCOn trackCafésLaunch the winter menu in every café
- 1Grinder keeps jammingGA16 days
- 2Oat milk runs out by Saturday lunchPN5 days
Head office often finds out how a site is doing only when someone visits or something goes wrong. Dan opens Teams and sees the four cafés next to each other, with each café’s climbs, open issues, check-ins, and huddle scores.
He can put the cafés in order by any of these to decide where to spend his week. Everything comes from the weekly check-ins and huddles, so no manager has to write a report.
- 1SheffieldHBClimbsIssues1211 daysCheck-insHBKMJW3 of 3Huddles7.4average over six huddles, last 7.2
- 2DurhamCFClimbsIssues128 daysCheck-insCFEDSK3 of 3Huddles7.2average over six huddles, last 6.6
- 3LeedsGAClimbsIssues1216 daysCheck-insGABCPN3 of 3Huddles8.4average over six huddles, last 8.3
- 4HarrogateOPClimbsIssues13 daysCheck-insOPLSRH2 of 3Huddles9.0average over six huddles, last 9.2
Choose what to order the cafés by.
The grinder jammed in Leeds, then in Sheffield, then in Durham. Each café raised it on its own list and tried its own fix. Harrogate had solved the same problem in October, and nobody outside Harrogate knew.
Search finds issues and decisions from every team. Dan raises one issue on the Cafés list, and the managers solve it together in their huddle. When the outcome is recorded as a standing rule, it goes in the Rulebook, where every café can find it.
- LeedsIssues
- 1Grinder keeps jamming16 days
- 2Oat milk runs out by Saturday lunch5 days
- HarrogateIssues
- 1Card reader drops out at the window3 days
- SheffieldIssues
- 1Grinder keeps jamming9 days
- 2Two shift leads leave in April11 days
- DurhamIssues
- 1Grinder keeps jamming4 days
- 2Dishwasher needs a new pump8 days
Fitting out the York café is this quarter’s Cafés climb, owned by Dan and due in December. Aisha trains the new team, Leeds hosts them for two weeks, Harrogate writes the opening checklist from its own opening, and the Roastery sets up the coffee bar.
Each of those is a climb of its own that supports Dan’s. Their milestones count towards Fit out the York café, so Dan’s climb shows the progress of the whole fit-out. Opening the café is next quarter’s company climb.
Headwater marks a climb behind pace when its progress is more than 25 points behind the time gone. About half of the quarter has gone, and Dan’s climb is at 70%.
- Train the York team to level twoIndividualARAisha
- Host the York team for two weeksLeedsGAGrace
- Write the café opening checklistHarrogateOPOwen
- Set up the York coffee barRoasteryPSPriya
Start with the managers’ team, so the people who run the sites learn Headwater first. Then add one café, and the rest two weeks later. By the end of the quarter, every café sets its own climbs in its own planning session.
Choose a week to see what to do in it. Each dot is a week that team checks in and holds its huddle.
Book a demo and we’ll show you how Headwater would run your week, from the vision down to Monday morning.