The Huddle and the Scoreboard

Every football team develops a plan for each game. The game plan informs the coaches which plays to call and the huddle is the “meeting” where this decision’s communicated to the players. The scoreboard informs the coaches, players (and fans) just how good the game plan is and how well it’s being executed. Based on the scoreboard, coaches and players make mid game adjustments.

Many organizations have implemented their own version of a huddle and scoreboard to help their teams “win” their game. SpringHill is into its second year of its weekly huddle and scoreboard. Both have helped our team quickly see the score, make the necessary adjustments and then “win the game”. It’s not a stretch to say that both the scoreboard and huddle are two contributing factors as to why SpringHill had its biggest year in its history.

Our huddle is open to all staff but the official “players” are members of our management team who have the responsibility to record the “stats” in the scoreboard and report them in the huddle. Our scoreboard includes the following statistical categories, measured against stated goals:

    Camper Experience including spiritual impact, Net Promoter Score (NPS) and safety

    Camper registration

    Fundraising

    Finances

After the huddle each manager reviews the “stats” with their own teams, so within a few days the entire SpringHill team knows the current “score” and can make adjustments in their game plans. We’ve added another tool in 2012 – a bi-weekly Huddle Report that’s emailed to all staff and summarizes the huddle, the scorecard and other important information our team needs.

We used three books in designing the SpringHill huddle and scoreboard – The Rockefeller Habits, Death by Meeting and The Great Game of Business. Each provided great perspective and input.

At SpringHill, we like to keep score, and we like to win, and the SpringHill huddle and scoreboard helps us do both.