Debate: Should we still do daily standups on job sites or just use group chat?

I was on a hospital build in Austin last year where the foreman insisted on 7am standups every single morning. Took 20 minutes out of our day and guys were standing around freezing in January. One day the GC said forget it, just use the crew chat for updates. Work went faster for a while but then miscommunications started piling up about some steel delivery dates. Now I'm wondering if the face-to-face time is actually worth the lost productivity. What do you all think, do standups help catch issues or are they just a time sink on active projects?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles_jackson93d ago

read a study last year from some university that looked at construction teams doing standups vs digital updates. they found the face to face ones cut down on rework by like 15% because people would catch little things when they were standing there talking. but the crew hated em so much they had lower morale. its a trade off for sure. on that job in Austin maybe a quick 5 minute huddle woulda worked better than freezing for 20.

benw873d ago

Saw a similar study from MIT that said shorter huddles kept morale way higher @miles_jackson9.