Shift your Performance from Reactive to Proactive
- Steve Wilcox
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
Author, Steve Wilcox, is a Senior Business Advisor with The Resultants.
Ever watch a job site or office suite first thing in the morning?
All too often, it can be a lot like a circus…
People wander in, chat about last night’s game, grab some coffee, and do pretty much everything except get started. It can feel chaotic, abrupt – and kind of crazy.
While these morning interactions can help foster camaraderie, they can also lead to significant lost productivity—up to an hour during the transition into the workday.
Multiply that by everyone on your workforce, and you’re just bleeding time. And the morning circus isn’t specific to any one industry or type of workplace – you’ll see it whether you're running a landscaping crew, a customer support team, or a hybrid work environment.
Does this sound familiar at all? If so, how can you keep the benefits of morning connections while boosting focus for a high-performance start?
Here are some steps you can take – right now – that will make a big difference.
Stagger Start Times
First, instead of everyone logging in or showing up at the same time, assign lead roles or early check-ins.
This lets your leaders prep for the day – get materials ready, troubleshoot issues, remove bottlenecks.
By the time the rest of the team arrives, they can hit the ground running. It’s go-time.
Leaders should model the behavior they want to see – being focused and present.
I learned this first-hand in the early phases of a landscape contracting business. I cut morning downtime in half just by having foremen get to work early to assign tasks and make sure tools were staged and ready. The result? No more bottlenecks at the tool crib. No more wasted motion.
Start with A Quick Morning Huddle
The worst thing you can do is assume everyone knows what to do.
Chances are, they don’t.
Don’t underestimate the power of a five-minute conversation. Five minutes of focused direction can save 50 minutes of confusion for your team. It’s that simple.
People want to feel like they’re winning. That starts with a good setup.
I've seen companies realize a massive drop in downtime after starting a no-nonsense morning huddle – just five minutes of clear alignment.
No long speeches. No unnecessary chit-chat. Just a quick briefing:
• What’s today’s top priority?
• Who’s responsible for what?
• What roadblocks do we need to clear now?
That’s it. Five minutes. A tiny time investment that pays off all day long, turning your team from reactive to proactive.
A quick, structured huddle – virtual or in person – provides focus.
Depending on your deadlines and pace of work, you might decide to huddle only every other day. Or even once a week. The point is to establish a regular cadence of accountability and focus.
In an office, this might happen in the hallway or around the conference table.
For remote or hybrid teams, a quick huddle on Zoom or Teams can serve the same purpose: align the team, clarify responsibilities, and flag urgent barriers or concerns. A regular check-in also keeps remote workers engaged and encourages the team to support one another.
The bottom line: when you get your poop in a group first thing in the morning, you have another seven and a half hours to cruise along, getting things done.
Fix Your Flow
Most of the time, the morning circus isn’t about the people – it’s just bad logistics.
If employees spend their first hour looking for tools, walking back and forth to grab supplies or waiting for instructions, that’s a process problem, not a people problem.
I’ve seen a manufacturing team cut wasted time by 40 percent – just by putting supplies on wheeled carts instead of making workers fetch things manually. No expensive tech. No complex system overhaul. Just better movement.
In an industrial setting, wasted movement is literal – walking across a warehouse to find a tool or grab a part. But in other settings, the waste is more subtle.
It might look like sifting through disorganized files – physical or digital. Or waiting for slow or outdated technology to wake up. Or dealing with the whims of unreliable Wi-Fi.
In any case, fix the process, and the people can perform. If you let the morning drift, you’re telling people it’s okay to waste time.
Want To Know If You Have A Process Problem?
Watch Your Team.
And I mean really watch them.
Remove yourself from the group and observe like an outsider. You can’t be part of the circus and also fix the circus.
You can even get a “real” outsider to watch and take notes for you. I’ve had interns with stopwatches record how long it takes the team to complete certain tasks to help me figure out how to do things better. We tracked it – time wasted vs. time saved. The data made the case.
You’ll be able to see it. If people are moving around more than they’re working, you’ve got inefficiencies to fix.
The first hour of the workday should be a momentum-builder, not a warm-up act.
Get rid of the circus, and your whole show runs better.
Ready to turn your morning circus into a well-orchestrated start to the day, allowing your team to do what they do best? Let’s chat about how we can help!
