This Email Could Have Been a Meeting

How to build a communication habit in 10 minutes a day

The Cost of Miscommunication

Most teams are in frequent, or even constant, communication. Between firing off quick emails, regular Zoom meetings, active Slack channels, WhatsApp groups, and the occasional old-fashioned phone call, holding a daily morning meeting seems inefficient or even wasteful.

If any two people can reach each other at any time of day, what’s they point of a daily huddle?

But by dropping the team huddle, workplaces didn’t replace bad meetings with better communication – they replaced scheduled interruptions with constant interruptions, and their teams are feeling the effects.

In a recent survey, over half of the respondents admitted they had missed important deadlines or meetings because they didn’t pay enough attention to their inboxes
On average, workers are spending 2.5 hours every day managing messages and notifications, cutting into the time available for more focused work
63% of workers say they’ve wasted time at work due to communication issues

For every meeting that could have been an email, there’s at least one miscommunication or misalignment that could have easily been solved with a quick meeting.

How to Huddle

Rather than relying on digital communication alone, a quick daily meeting can create focus and accountability.

Here are 9 tips for a successful huddle to kickstart each day, even for very small or remote teams:

Keep it short. Aim for 5-15 minutes depending on the size of the team.
Managers might have 2 huddles, first with their direct reports and then with their peers or bosses.
Hold the meeting in the same place and at the same time every day to create a predictable communication pattern.
Keep it a phone-free zone – no notifications or distractions allowed.
Start by sharing any wins or good news to build momentum.
Give everyone the floor in turn to deliver two updates: first, to share the biggest or most important thing they’ll do in the day ahead, and second, to report on yesterday’s big thing. There’s no need to share your full To Do list – keeping it to just one priority forces focus, and reporting on yesterday creates accountability.
When issues surface, don’t use the huddle to solve them. (Don’t ignore them either – follow up discussions may be necessary.)
For remote teams, the huddle can easily be held on Zoom or even via check-ins on Slack or Teams.
For very small teams of 2-4 people, you may be able to reduce the frequency to 1-3 times per week.

If your team is heavy on digital communication tools, but still lacks accountability, misses messages, or duplicates work, implementing a morning huddle can bring better alignment and boost productivity.

This Week’s Takeaway

Daily huddles can be a great way to reduce miscommunication and build cohesion within a team. Each person should participate in the very short and focused meeting, and leave knowing exactly what they’re committing to accomplish that day and who owns what.

How can you start or modify your morning meeting to create new levels of accountability?

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