You see them in sport….but how about at work?
As an ex-NHS employee, a recent article on dealing with stress caught my eye. NHS Employers recommends team huddles as one way of helping NHS staff deal with work-related stress.
It’s a useful recommendation, and there’s a helpful example video in the guidance showing what one might look like. But the question which arose for me was how to put it into practice without creating yet another meeting.
A well-run huddle gives people a few minutes to acknowledge the pressure they’ve been under, identify anything requiring action and make a clearer transition out of work. It can help clinical staff after a difficult shift, but it is equally relevant to people working in administration, management, policy, finance, HR, digital services and other support roles.
These jobs can involve distressing complaints, workforce problems, service pressures, financial constraints and decisions that affect patients and staff. Much of the work now happens remotely.
That creates its own difficulty. One minute you’re dealing with a serious problem on Teams; the next, you’re standing in your kitchen. The laptop closes, but your mind may remain at work.
My page about online counselling for work-related stress explains more about why work can be so difficult to leave behind.
What is a decompression huddle?
A decompression huddle is a short, structured conversation near the end of a shift or working day. Ten minutes is usually enough.
It isn’t:
- a performance meeting;
- an operational update;
- an incident investigation;
- group therapy; or
- an attempt to solve every problem immediately.
Its purpose is to notice the effect of the day, check whether anybody needs support and agree any action that shouldn’t wait.
Step one: agree the safeguards
Nobody should be required to discuss their feelings in front of colleagues. Before starting, agree some simple rules:
- Speaking is voluntary and anyone can pass.
- Cameras are optional during virtual huddles.
- Identifiable patient, service-user or staff information must not be shared.
- The meeting won’t be recorded.
- Personal disclosures won’t be copied into minutes, chat records or action logs.
- Comments made in the huddle won’t be used for performance management.
- Only operational issues and agreed actions will be recorded.
Confidentiality has limits. A facilitator shouldn’t promise that everything will always remain within the group. An immediate risk, safeguarding concern or disclosure of serious misconduct may need to be followed up.
The facilitator can explain this at the start:
“This isn’t a work update. It’s ten minutes to notice how the day has affected us and whether anything needs to happen before we finish. You can speak, use the chat or pass. Please don’t share identifiable information. We won’t record personal comments, although I may need to follow up an immediate safety or safeguarding concern privately.”
Remote workers may not have a private room. Let people wear headphones, switch off their camera, contribute briefly or request a private conversation instead.
Step two: follow the ten-minute method
Minute 1: Stop working
Mark the change from doing the work to reflecting on its effect.
Ask people to close their inbox, silence notifications and put other work aside. Don’t use slides or bring up the task list.
A short pause can help everyone change gear. It doesn’t need to feel like a formal wellbeing exercise.
Minutes 2–4: What was difficult?
Ask one or two straightforward questions:
- What created the most pressure today?
- Was there anything particularly difficult to carry?
- Is something from today still going around in your mind?
For clinical staff, this might involve an upsetting incident, an unsafe workload or a distressed patient.
For administrative and support staff, it could be an aggressive call, an uncomfortable meeting, conflicting deadlines, constant interruptions or responsibility for making a decision without enough information.
People can answer aloud, add a few words in the chat or pass. Don’t immediately give advice or start investigating what happened. First, let the pressure be acknowledged.
Minutes 5–6: What helped?
Ask:
- What made today more manageable?
- Did somebody or something help?
This isn’t about forcing positivity. It identifies things worth repeating: a colleague stepping in, a manager clarifying priorities or somebody feeling able to say they were overloaded.
Minutes 7–8: What needs action?
Separate operational problems from individual support needs.
An operational problem might require a decision about workload, staffing, priorities or deadlines. Give the action a named owner and timescale.
For example:
“Manager to resolve the conflicting deadlines tomorrow morning.”
A personal concern will usually be better discussed privately. Record the agreed action, but don’t document somebody’s feelings or details about their mental health.
If the same pressure is raised repeatedly, stop treating it as an individual wellbeing issue. It may be evidence of a wider problem that management needs to address.
Minutes 9–10: Is everyone okay to finish?
End with two questions:
- Is there anything that needs dealing with before we finish or log off?
- Does anybody want a private check-in?
For virtual teams, the facilitator can remain online for five minutes or contact the person privately.
If somebody appears particularly distressed, don’t simply allow them to disappear from the call. Offer a private conversation, agree what will happen next and check that they’re safe.
Step three: record actions, not emotions
The huddle doesn’t need detailed minutes. Keep a short action log covering:
- the operational issue;
- what will be done;
- who owns the action; and
- when it will be reviewed.
A suitable entry might be:
“Competing deadlines across two projects. Service manager to agree the priority by 10am tomorrow.”
An unsuitable entry would be:
“Jane became upset and said she couldn’t cope.”
Personal information should be handled privately and through the appropriate support route.
Step four: keep virtual huddles separate
A virtual huddle can easily become another Teams update. Don’t attach it to the end of a long operational meeting when everybody is tired and waiting to leave.
Create a separate ten-minute invitation. Don’t use an agenda, slides or progress reports. If an operational discussion starts taking over, record the required action and arrange another conversation.
If people work different hours, rotate the time or use smaller groups. A written check-in may occasionally help, but it shouldn’t become another form for staff to complete.
Managers should participate as people rather than simply chairing the discussion. A brief comment such as “I found the competing demands difficult today” may make it easier for others to speak.
Managers must also act. Regularly asking staff about pressure and then ignoring what they say is likely to make matters worse.
Step five: know when the huddle isn’t enough
A ten-minute conversation cannot compensate for unsafe staffing, excessive workloads, bullying, discrimination or poor management. It shouldn’t be used to help people tolerate conditions that need to change.
A huddle also isn’t the place to process a traumatic event in detail. Violence, a patient death, a serious clinical incident or another potentially traumatic experience may require a properly facilitated response.
The facilitator should know the organisation’s routes for further help. Depending on the concern, these could include:
- a line manager or senior manager;
- occupational health;
- the staff wellbeing or employee-assistance service;
- a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian;
- a trade union representative;
- safeguarding procedures;
- violence and aggression reporting arrangements; or
- formal incident-reporting and emergency procedures.
The huddle helps identify when those routes are needed. It doesn’t replace them.
Step six: run a four-week trial
Start with one team and test the method for four weeks. Keep it small enough to adjust.
At the end, ask:
- Did it help people finish work more clearly?
- Did staff feel able to pass?
- Did it work for remote and part-time employees?
- Did practical concerns lead to action?
- Did the huddle remain supportive or turn into another meeting?
- What should we change?
Keep what works. Change what doesn’t.
The method doesn’t need to be elaborate. It needs to be brief, voluntary, safe and followed by action.
For somebody working from home, its value may be as simple as hearing:
“That was a difficult day. You don’t have to carry it alone—and you don’t have to carry it into the rest of your evening.”
Further reading
Why you can’t switch off from work—and what might help
If work pressure is becoming difficult to contain, you can contact me to enquire about future availability .