In part 1 of our “Evolution of Daily Stand-ups” series, we mentioned that "your daily standup doesn't need a script" and proposed focusing on a simple question:
💡 How can we move closer to our sprint goal today?
We stressed how this question changes everything, transforming routine updates into a more meaningful collaboration focused on what matters.
Let's build on that foundation with practical strategies informed by research. As we mentioned in yesterday's article about team mental models, the shared understandings teams develop—about ownership, learning, and interconnection—significantly impact their performance.
These mental models offer the perfect lens for reimagining our standups.
We know many teams find themselves stuck in what one engineering manager described as "zombie standups," lifeless status reporting sessions where team members recite their tasks without engagement.
Fitzgerald puts it bluntly: without a sprint goal, standups become "a group of people giving individual updates about their individual tasks."
Sounds familiar? Let's fix that.
Start by replacing the three-question format with a focus on your sprint goal. This may seem like a small change, but it can drive profound changes in how teams think about their work.
When your team focuses on "how can we move closer to our sprint goal today?" they naturally change course from individual status to collective progress.
One developer described the difference: "Instead of just listing off my tasks, I started thinking about how my work impacts what we're trying to achieve together."
📖 Try this: Place your sprint goal visibly during standup. Ask team members to specifically connect their updates to that goal. Watch how the conversation naturally evolves from task lists to strategic discussions.
The traditional standup structure often discourages interruptions and deeper discussions. But as Reynolds notes, effective updates should "read less like a status report and more like a conversation starter."
This connects directly to the "heedful interrelating" mental model from yesterday's article - team members actively considering how their work affects others rather than operating in silos.
📖 Try this: After individual updates, explicitly allocate 5-7 minutes for what some teams call "after party" discussions. Say, "Now let's address any coordination needs or dependencies." This legitimizes the collaborative conversations that make standups valuable.
Your standup should adapt to your team's specific needs rather than following a rigid formula. As Santos advises, "change it, measure the change, learn what works, and repeat. That's the agile way."
This approach embodies the "continuous learning" mental model we discussed yesterday as well - the shared understanding that adaptation and improvement are constant processes.
📖 Try this: Run a two-week experiment with a modified standup approach. Some teams have found success with:
✽ Alternating between synchronous and asynchronous updates
✽ Three-times-weekly synchronous standups with async updates on other days
✽ Moving standups to before lunch rather than first thing in the morning
Measure both objective outcomes (sprint completion, bug frequency) and subjective experiences (team satisfaction, feeling of alignment).
I think Fernando’s article perfectly highlights how standups can disrupt productive flow: "After getting focused on her core task, a reminder pops up: Stand up in 15 minutes."
This constant context-switching undermines both your team productivity and morale.
📖 Try this: Schedule standups at natural transition points in your team's workday. Some teams have found success with:
✽ First thing in the morning (before deep work begins)
✽ Just before lunch (when focus naturally wanes)
✽ End of day (to set up tomorrow's priorities, although less recommended)
Ask your team when interruptions would be least disruptive, then adjust accordingly.
When the same person always leads standup, it subtly reinforces that the meeting belongs to them, not the team.
Rotation builds what yesterday's article identified as "psychological ownership" - the belief that "team actions and outcomes were under the team's authority and responsibility."
📖 So try this: Create a simple facilitation guide with prompts like:
✽ "How does this work move us toward our sprint goal?"
✽ "Who might need to know about this change?"
✽ "Does anyone have input on this approach?"
Then rotate facilitation weekly among team members, regardless of seniority. How’s that sound?
Effective standups don't just track progress, they actively reinforce the mental models your team needs to succeed:
Psychological ownership
When updates focus on contributing to shared goals rather than completing individual tasks, they strengthen collective responsibility. Listen for language changes from "my tasks" to "our progress."
Continuous learning
Create space in standups for knowledge sharing. Some teams add a quick "lesson learned" or "what I discovered" moment. This normalizes the learning process and breaks down the barriers to admitting knowledge gaps.
Careful interrelating
Encourage team members to explicitly mention connections between their work and others'. This builds awareness of interdependencies and reduces the "my code works fine, must be your problem" mindset.
Even with the best intentions, standups can (and likely will) go off track. I found three common issues:
✾ Problem: "Updates are too detailed and technical"
✽ Solution: Implement the "20-second rule" - each update must be understandable within 20 seconds. Technical discussions happen after the main standup.
✾ Problem: "The same people always talk while others remain silent"
✽ Solution: Try round-robin format for a week, but with the goal-focused question rather than the three questions. This resets participation patterns.
✾ Problem: "Discussions constantly go off-topic"
✽ Solution: Use a physical or virtual "parking lot" to capture important but tangential topics for discussion after standup.
How do you know if your standup improvements are working? Look for these indicators:
Don't try to overhaul everything at once. Choose one change to implement tomorrow:
Then, gradually introduce the other strategies as your team builds comfort with this new approach.
Remember that standups aren't about following a rulebook, but creating meaningful moments of alignment that propel your team forward. When properly designed, they become a daily practice that reinforces the mental models your team needs to thrive.
So what change will you try in your next daily standup?
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