Weekly Huddle

“Testing, testing, can you guys hear me?” Rachel asked. The leadership team had joined the video conference 15 minutes early to test and make sure everything was ready before our weekly Huddle started.

Looking at the screen, I saw the small group of us in our various settings. Steve was in a golf shirt in what looked like a home office. Ahmet was also in a home office but was wearing a button-down dress shirt. Martha was dressed more casually (like me) in a company t-shirt and was outside on what appeared to be her back porch. Rachel was more formally dressed, and I couldn’t tell where she was, only that there was a black wall behind her, making her the most professional looking of all of us.

“Steve, I can’t hear you,” she said. It appeared that Steve was on mute.

“...oh, how about now, I think I had mute on,” Steve said. “Can you hear me now?”

A round of yes’s and yep’s cascaded through the video chat. We were all learning to work in the best way possible in this new normal.

“Okay, let’s make sure this Huddle goes as smoothly as possible,” I said. “The main goal is to make sure that the whole team understands the plan we’ve been working on and that they have the chance to ask questions. We’ll start with PVTV, present the typical scoreboard overview, share the plan, and open up for Q&A. Let’s end with acknowledgments. That should take up the entire time, but is there anything else that’s critical to talk about in this Huddle?”

“As long as we give them time to ask questions, then I think that’s it from my side,” Martha said.

Everyone seemed to agree, and we went over the specifics of the plan one more time. With five minutes left until Huddle started, we disbanded and zipped off to take care of a few quick things before the meeting got going. I needed a coffee refill, to be sure.

I went into the kitchen, where Sarah was giving Danielle her breakfast. While the current situation we were in with this pandemic was tough from almost all angles, one bright side was that I’d get to see them both much more. I was excited to have lunch with them today—I’d blocked it off on my calendar and everything.

“Almost time for the Huddle?” she asked.

“Yep, just grabbing another cup of coffee,” I said.

“It was too bad that you guys had to cancel the big nonprofit day you had set up next month,” she said. She was referring to our quarterly ‘Do Good’ initiative that we had to postpone due to the crisis. We were going to bring together marketing volunteers from the community and help as many nonprofits as we could with their website and digital platforms. Once the work-from-home announcement came, we had to push that off to a later date.

“I know. The team was pretty devastated. There were so many charities that we were going to help,” I said.

“What did you decide to do instead?”

“What do you mean? We can’t do the event anymore, so we pushed it off,” I said.

“Right. But what are you going to do? Your business has always had quarterly efforts to help the community. I assumed you would be doing something to help, especially during this time when there’s so much need,” she said.

I thought about that for a moment. She was right. In all the planning we did, we never considered that we would still do our quarterly community service work.

“And I bet it would make everyone feel good to try to help right now,” she continued. “Don’t you think?”

“Actually, I do,” I said, kicking myself for not thinking of that, and for not asking Sarah for her advice. She’d always helped me navigate tough situations. Having her by my side has made all the difference in my career.

I took a glance at my watch and realized the Huddle was about to start.

“That’s great advice. Thanks, honey,” I said. I quickly planted a kiss on Danielle’s head and rushed back to the meeting.

Key point: During difficult times, rely on those closest to you for support and ideas. You’re not alone, and ideas can come from anywhere. Seek input from anyone who will give it to you.

I made it back to my computer just in time for the meeting. I looked at the screen. It was crowded with close to seventy-five faces, all in various locations and setups. It was a joy to see them all.

“Good morning, everyone! Who wants to kick us off with our PVTV?” I asked. I was always hoping a non-leadership team member would step up to the plate.

“I’ll do it,” said Nicholas, one of our newer team members. He did it, and it was flawless.

“Great job, Nicholas!” I said, truly impressed by not only his ability to memorize our PVTV, but also the boldness to do it in front of the entire company so early in his tenure.

We rolled through the beginning part of the meeting. Rachel took everyone through the current financial numbers, Steve gave an update on client relationships, and Ahmet talked about the sales pipeline. So far, there was only a roughly twenty percent drop in our revenue expectations. I was pretty sure that would continue to decrease, but we could handle a drop that size without having to make any significant changes.

It was my turn to walk everyone through the plan. In these cases, I always thought it was best to be as direct as possible.

“I’m sure you can all see that everyone is trying their best to make sure we are as successful as possible during this crisis. That’s great, and we should all be so proud of how we’re working together. We also need to make sure we’re planning for what happens if revenue drops significantly. The reality is, it could. We’re working as hard as possible to keep things stable, but some things will be out of our control during this time, and I want you all to know what our plan is to stay the course,” I said.

I then walked them through the three scenarios, explaining that we were essentially in Scenario One, tightening our belt and being as efficient as possible. If our revenue dropped twenty-five percent, we would implement Scenario Two, an indefinite twenty percent salary cut across the board. And if our revenue dropped forty percent, we would have to go to Scenario Three, which was to lay off some of our people.

“I want you all to know, laying anyone off is the last thing in the world that we want to do,” I said, trying to make eye contact with as many of our team members as I could. “We’re sharing this with you because we value you, and it’s important that we are honest with you all. If things get too bad, pay cuts and layoffs are possible. We want you to know how and when that might occur.”

I paused again, giving everyone—myself included—a moment to breathe.

“I know this level of honesty about our worst-case scenario planning might cause some anxiety for you, but my hope is that you know you are part of the process and that we will keep giving you the information you need so we all have the best chance for success. More than ever, we’ll need everyone coming to the table with ideas.”

While I didn’t say it, another big reason I wanted to share this with everyone was so they knew we had a plan. Too often, leaders resist sharing their plans because the information is hard to deliver, or they don’t trust their team members to respond calmly and thoughtfully. This approach is almost always a mistake.

Key point: Your team needs to know you have a plan. For the long-term, for the short-term, and certainly during a crisis. Sometimes having a plan is more important than the plan itself.

The video screen pinged. Someone wanted to ask a question.

“I see that Kirsty has a question,” I said.

“Thanks, Will. I’ll admit, this is scary stuff to hear. But honestly, it’s not as scary as what I had in my mind, so I guess that’s good,” she said with a nervous laugh.“My question is, how do you think we should go about problem-solving? I know we will all want to try to see how we can help. Do you have any advice on how we might get started?”

“Great question,” I said. “And I know I will sound like a broken record, but I would recommend everyone go back to our PVTV. Honestly, I use it all the time to help me think through challenging situations.”

“For instance, think about the tenet that says we will Strive for Operational Excellence . We talk all the time about what that means to us. If you go deep into that idea, you’ll start to see a lot of ways we can be as prudent as possible and help our profit margin. Or think about our purpose to inspire happiness through positive relationships. Maybe there are ways we can be a better partner to our clients during this challenging time that will help our relationships grow rather than wilt.”

Key point: Always go back to your PVTV: Purpose, Vision, Tenets, and Values (or your specific construct). If you have worked to bring your PVTV to life within your company, it can be the compass that everyone uses to navigate through difficult times.

After a few more people asked questions, I turned it over to Rachel.

“Later this week, I will share a live scoreboard that will show you where we are against these three scenarios at any point in time,” she said. “We will still have our weekly Huddles, but this will be something that we update in real-time with the trigger points we discussed in today’s meeting.”

No one had any questions for Rachel, but I could tell from looking at their faces on the screen that they would be eager to see the scoreboard when it was ready. For that matter, so would I.

“Ok, everyone,” I said. “Time for acknowledgments.”

Years ago, I had introduced the idea of adding acknowledgments to the end of our Huddles. The idea was simple. I opened the floor up for anyone to acknowledge any of their peers. Ideally, they were recognized for our values, but it could be anything.

“I’ll go first,” I said. I usually didn’t go first, but given that this was a video conference instead of an in-person meeting, I thought I should get the ball rolling. “I’ll start by acknowledging the leadership team for their partnership and hard work over the last few weeks. I think you all know this, but they carry an immense burden trying to help us steer this ship, and their grace and passion have been nothing short of incredible.”

Everyone clapped, and I continued, “And I also want to acknowledge Nicholas for being willing to do the PVTV today! That was both brave and impressive!”

They all clapped for Nicholas, and then Kevin jumped in.

“I want to thank you, Will, and the rest of the leadership team, for being so open and honest with us. As Kirsty said, this is a scary time, but I don’t know anyone else who works in a company that is so candid with their team. It really shows you trust us, and that means so much right now.”

After that, people went back and forth, recognizing each other for things they had done over the past week. Someone mentioned that a team member realized they were struggling and checked in on them after a tense meeting. Another acknowledged a teammate for over-delivering on an important piece of creative. As usual, I had to cut off the love-fest because we had run out of time.

“Ok, I think our time is up. I appreciate all of you so much, and I want you to know that we’re doing everything we can to weather the current climate. We’ll absolutely need and welcome your help in identifying solutions along the way. Please, as always, be forthcoming with your ideas,” I said.

There was a chorus of good-byes as everyone signed off from the video chat. All things considered, I thought the meeting went well. I was sure that being honest with them was the right move, as it always had been. And ending with acknowledgments, as we had for years, was the right way to end the tough conversation.

Key point: Find ways for your team members to acknowledge and recognize each other publicly. During a stressful time, this kind of peer support and recognition will go a long way to strengthen bonds.