Meetings can be a major pain point in many organizations. Often, they are one extreme or the other—incredibly productive, or a waste of time and money for your company. That's why it's important to maximize the time in your team Huddle, so you can effectively solve problems and address issues, increase productivity and efficiency, provoke new ideas, and build trust and morale. Do you ever find yourself second-guessing your workplace Huddles, thinking they could be better? Overall, if you’re getting what you need to get out of them, then you’re probably doing a good (enough) job. But sometimes it takes more than “good enough” to have great Huddle experiences week after week. Below are a few Huddle do's and don’ts designed to help you tweak minor behaviors and practices to ensure that you are getting as much as your team can get out your Huddle week after week:

Newbies to the Great Game, seasoned company owners, and CEOs alike are often bothered by this question: How do I get my leaders and front-line employees more engaged in The Game? A few years back, I was asking this question at my own company, Tasty Catering. While our company soared immediately following the implementation of GGOB, our Game engagement faded after about eight months. Although financial improvements were still evident on our scoreboard, I could tell by the faces and body language in our weekly Huddle that something was “off.” We needed a boost.

Like many business leaders and owners, my partners and I found it difficult to find time to work “on” the business, because we were so busy working “in” the business. We were already working 60-hour workweeks and with a rapidly growing company, we feared working “on” the business would result in 70+ hour workweeks. Our company had increased the top line at a breakneck pace, but the bottom line lagged behind and our bonus plan was flawed.

Co-authored by Eugene Rios The most commonly asked questions we get with The Great Game from non-practicing organizations are these: What if the competition gets a hold of our numbers? I don’t want the employees to know how much profit (or loss) the company generates. How can we play The Game when we have multiple locations? How can we have a weekly huddle when most of our employees work remote? This won’t work for us because we are a union shop. Each of the above questions can be easily diffused.

What can a truly engaged work huddle do for your Game play? There is tremendous excitement over the Great Game of Business when a company first begins to play The Game. The honeymoon phase usually lasts about as long as The Games are going well, but every once in a while, as a leader, you might be faced with some unengaged employees during your weekly huddles.