A question that’s being raised more often these days is what’s the definition of a huddle room? What is this strange-sounding room and why is it considered to be vital to an organization?
The answer may very well be something that readers will become more familiar with as the concept is phased into everyday business life throughout the U.S. As a result, now is a good time to become familiar with the concept. Below is a look at the definition of the huddle room and an overview of the concept in general.
A Working Definition of the Huddle Room
When people think of the word huddle, they envision a quickly organized cluster of people, most likely a sports team, meeting together for a specific purpose: to win. The usual definition of huddle says much the same, usually yielding something along the lines of ‘to crowd together’ for its use as a verb and ‘a crowded mass’ for the noun.
However, the term is primarily employed in the context of sports. Teams huddle up together to discuss their next moves, exchange ideas, and get motivated for moving forward. By necessity, these groupings are dynamic, flexible, and can occur when necessary without the trappings of more formal meetings. Those that meet together do so with the goal of working together as a team and to beat their adversaries, whether it’s defeating another team or overcoming internal issues, such as performance concerns.
Differences and Similarities
When this concept manifests into a physical space, the result is the huddle room. With the above definition of huddle in hand, at this point readers may wonder in what ways this concept differs from the traditional boardroom. And the answer is fairly straightforward: there are similarities and overlaps but the concept is ultimately more flexible, more affordable, and more appropriate for the dynamic needs of today’s business environments.
Boardrooms come with a particular reputation today, and they’re generally portrayed as dreadful, centralized locations where routine and drawn-out presentations put people in suits to sleep. While the reality of the situation may not match this pop culture caricature, often times it’s more similar to it than different, and that can be a problem for companies that place value on collaboration and the exchange of ideas.
Unlike board rooms, huddle rooms generally manifest as multiple small conference rooms strategically spread out through a facility. Groups use these rooms to quickly come together as needed, whether planned or impromptu. This creates a strong dynamic in which meetings can be held on the fly.
These rooms are often connected to one another with audio-video devices that allow for similarly dynamic connectivity as needed. Given today’s focus on collaboration and network-driven business environments, these rooms are naturally appearing in place of their boardroom predecessors. And they’re not limited to the business world: these rooms have started to appear regularly at schools, further attesting to their utility and potential.
The huddle room is quickly becoming an integral part of doing business and keeping people informed and motivated.