Archived Huddles

[GrumpyAP]

Overnights at walmart we have our "huddle" before we go out to zone and stock. At least we sit in the breakroom and just scream 1 2 3 walmart! instead of that stupid and pointless cheer that goes against what they say (whos number 1? The customer" well if they were why not we gewt the **** out of here and help them instead of acting like idiots? )

sweet baby jesus ... i'm sort glad we dont have any damn 'team building' cheer crap

 

[melvin]

Would you rather not know what events are going on in the store?

Knowing the data or other information does not necessitate having a store-wide huddle. It's a terribly ineffective and inefficient way of conveying information. What could take a minute or two to convey is dragged out into many minutes. Furthermore, conveying the numbers verbally and in a setting where you're surrounded by dozens of people guarantees that the majority of team members will neither memorize the numbers nor be inclined whatsoever to understand those numbers. They will be less inclined to ask relevant questions.

The best model I saw in a retail setting was at a grocery store at which I worked before Target. Each department had a weekly meeting that store management sat in on. Numbers, department issues and store issues were discussed. It was a far, far better way of communicating business concerns and it elicited ideas and concerns from employees precisely because it was a smaller setting. Beyond that, it's silly to believe that most team members need to know the numbers every day they work. I would challenge anyone to articulate why a backroom team member who works 15 hours per week, for instance, needs to know the conversion rate for the previous day. I understand completely going over where the store is trending on a weekly basis, but a day-to-day update of the whole litany of numbers for every team member in the building is a colossal waste of time and resources.

As to recognition, people feel most appreciative of recognition that is delivered to them personally. I believe the research bears this out. In other words, the most authentic recognition seems to be person A telling person B that they appreciated it when person B did whatever task it was for them. Probably the least authentic recognition one could design would be a system in which there is a standard form upon which person A fills in the blanks and posts it on a board to recognize person B.

As someone else mentioned, the primary reason store-wide huddles are bad business is because it neglects the guests. I can't tell you how many times, even as the morning huddle was held directly in front of the checkouts, that a guest would be left waiting at the service desk or even at the lanes. It looks terrible from the point of view of the guest. Invariably, team members are blocking aisles, checkouts or generally making guests walking by feel awkward as several dozen people watch them walk by. Not to mention that it pulls team members away from their departments where they cannot help guests.

 

[melvin]

sweet baby jesus ... i'm sort glad we dont have any damn 'team building' cheer crap

Did you happen to read my story from a month back? I was back getting signs ready several years ago when there was a visit. I don't recall what this person's position was, but he was talking to one of the ETLs, explaining how to "motivate the flow team." He apparently was a former ETL-Logistics. He explained that he would have his team do the "hokey-pokey" every morning. It was priceless. I was imagining some of the veterans on flow who had been there for years and years at our store stuffing him into the baler, tying it up rather quickly and then whisking him onto the trailer.

 

[daninnj]

^^^ Can I thank a thousand times????

 

[cjllonewolf]

I feel like Ive been to the same huddle a thousand times. They dont even ask me to lead huddles anymore cuz I visibly show that I think its bullsh#t. :boredom: I think we should only have huddles if there is something that whole team honestly should hear such as HR announcements or if there is a task to complete i.e. smart huddles or freshness friday. The best part is the so called recognition...where an ETL recognizes "the whole team" to break the silence and then people just think of basic things to commend. At our store the only people that honestly know things worth recognizing keep their mouth shut at huddles because they are also the same people who are never recognized for anything. The worst ones are the huddles our STL participates in they are easily a half hour long and everyone has to attend. I actually saw him coaching a dayside backroom team member (the team members who the huddles have the least usefulness) for not attending. I got worried when my ETL first started because she was always giving me things to cover at huddles on my business walk...glad that dropped off quick. lol

 

[cjllonewolf]

If it's the same recognition then do something to earn recognition. Clearly that person has the right mind set.

lmao Another one of these. Here we go again...you see unlike the Target that they show in those nifty training videos the actual stores have this thing called "culture". For some stores its positive and for some (or should I say most) its negative. Im sure at your store, or whatever store your daydreaming about, hard work gets recognized and those that stand around complaining about recognition honestly dont deserve any. But unfortunately the case in most stores is recognition is dealt out at every corner for the sake of appeasing the STL with a full GTC wall and contains no genuine gratitude. Things like recognizing a team member for cleaning a dime-sized spill or recognizing the closing team from the previous night for a successful close (something simple that usually cant be verified or argued by anyone attending the huddle) is what floods our day as opposed to recognizing TL's for completing two dozen salesplanners in a week with no team members to help or recognizing Plano team for resetting an entire department ahead of schedule and using spare time to help out the rest of the store. My point being when you work in a "culture" like this long enough you no longer seek recognition, take it seriously, or go out of your way to hand it out to others. And so you are aware your condescending by-the-book comments are laughable to those of us who work in the real Target...go back to Twitter

 

[tellmeaboutatime]

Recognition in a group setting can backfire badly. Salesfloor TL "Bob" is given huge recognition for helping with pulls in the backroom the previous day due to a call out. While they did give recognition to "Bob" they forgot about the other 2 salesfloor team members who took on the additional workload because they were now short 1 salesfloor person. They also forgot to recognize the backroom team member who had to take on the extra workload because although "Bob" did help out, he wasn't as fast as the person who called out. So by recognizing "Bob" you have alienated the other 3 team members because you failed to see how they also helped out.