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We’ve been talking about stand ups here at ThoughtWorks.

I’m actually not a big fan of the traditional yesterday – today – issues format. I find that too often it becomes a status meeting – this is what I did yesterday, doing more of the same today, and no issues.

Instead of a status meeting, I like to treat it as a planning meeting. I prefer to think of a stand up like a huddle in American football. The point is to focus on today, and figure out a game plan that makes the most sense. Who needs to pair with whom? Who’s tackling what stories?

I find the signal to noise ratio is much higher in the latter format as is the energy. It’s fine to mention anything from yesterday that is especially pertinent or interesting to the team, but I think the focus should be on today.