In many organizations striving for operational excellence, huddle boards are everywhere. They hang in break rooms, hallways, and team areas—often colorful, covered with metrics, sticky notes, and sometimes shout-outs for birthdays or weekend plans. While celebrating culture and connection is important, we need to ask a critical question: Are our huddle boards serving their intended purpose?
From my experience, the difference between a communication board and a true huddle board often determines whether an organization genuinely improves—or merely maintains the illusion of engagement.
It’s easy to confuse the two.
Communication boards:
Huddle boards:
This distinction is subtle—but critical. A board meant to drive problem-solving that becomes a “feel-good” bulletin loses its power. As one leader told me, a board like that can become “costly wallpaper”—bright and appealing, but masking broken commitments to customers.
Celebrating birthdays or giving shout-outs builds community—and there is value in that. But when visual management becomes more about smiles than standards, or connection over correction, the core of daily management erodes.
A true huddle board is not about blame. It is about learning, truth-telling, and continuous improvement. It helps teams answer key operational questions:
Without clarity on these points, the board fails its primary purpose: connecting the team’s work to the customer’s voice.
A well-functioning huddle board helps a team answer four essential questions:
To answer these effectively, the board must display:
When implemented well, huddle boards support shared awareness, problem-solving, and continuous improvement—not just engagement for engagement’s sake.
I use two questions to assess the effectiveness of a huddle board:
If the answer to either is “no,” the board may be misleading, giving the illusion of performance while hiding systemic issues. Teams that stop seeing problems stop learning—and improvement stalls.
When the purpose of a huddle board is diluted, several risks emerge:
I’ve seen teams avoid difficult discussions because their board had become a “feel-good zone.” Rather than tackling defects or missed deliveries, conversations turn to snacks and birthdays. While well-meaning, this removes the tension necessary for improvement.
True joy at work comes not from avoiding problems but from solving them—making progress and knowing your team is improving every day.
To bring huddle boards back to their intended purpose, leaders need clarity, structure, and intention. Here’s a practical framework:
Start with the customer. What do they expect regarding quality, timeliness, responsiveness, and safety? Identify a small number of KPIs that reflect these priorities.
Show how the team performed yesterday against these metrics. Keep it simple and visual. Color codes or symbols can highlight where targets were met or missed, enabling immediate insight.
When metrics fall short, help the team understand why. Use simple tools like the 5 Whys. Focus on the system, not individuals, to identify underlying causes.
Encourage the team to propose countermeasures. Test solutions, measure results, and iterate. The board becomes a learning system, where improvement cycles are visible, transparent, and valued.
Static boards go stale. Rotate facilitators, refresh content, and increase complexity as team capabilities grow. Celebrate progress visibly and link improvements back to the board.
Culture matters. Keep birthdays and shout-outs—but intentionally. Consider separate spaces or digital tools for celebrations, so the huddle board stays focused on performance and improvement.
Fixing broken processes may not seem as fun as planning team events, but it builds engagement that lasts. The benefits include:
This engagement is sustainable, fueled by meaningful work and tangible progress—not external events.
Ask yourself: How well does your huddle board help your team?
If the answers are vague or uncomfortable, it’s not a matter of aesthetics—it’s a matter of purpose. A huddle board refresh should focus on function, clarity, and discipline, not color or format.
In Lean management, visual tools are not decoration. They are windows into performance—and performance is how we serve our customers.