How daily standups decrease work productivity:
Daily standups are a waste of time because most times, they are not done properly, and there are better ways to collect the same information.
The problems with daily standups:
- Daily standups wastes time: Daily standups waste time because everything is done in person. If someone is out getting a coffee, everyone in the team has to wait until that person is back and completes their daily standup. Meetings can also drag on - and become inefficient. Teammates may ramble, engage in tangential conversations, or fail to raise blockers.
- Disrupts deep work mode: People who create things - developers, designers, writers, entrepreneurs, marketers like to work in large uninterrupted blocks of time. With daily standups, because you are expected to be present in person at a time that is convenient for everyone, it interrupts your work flow, and reduces productivity.
- Time zone challenges: When people are working remote, in different time zones, it can become challenging to co-ordinate schedules across time zones.
- Daily standups encourages wrong estimates: In most cases, daily standups are wrongly used as status updates. Employees feel pressured to say something so that they seem "productive". Many times you will hear something like: "the task X is almost done, and I will create a pr for it tomorrow". Then when tomorrow comes, you will hear: "Ran into a problem with task X, have completed it, and will submit PR tomorrow". Daily standups become status updates because employees feel like they have to say something significant. If you absolutely have to do daily standups in person - get comfortable with not giving estimates - but instead only saying "working thru task X", or "need help with X as stick on a problem".
- Important information is lost: Daily standups are great for sharing blockers or something help with your team. This ways if someone else is working on a similar problem, they know what the pitfalls are how to avoid it. But, most information, is lost in daily standups. Because the information is not stored, people forget what was shared by someone a few days ago. There is no record for people to look up on past problems and solutions. Team members may be pre-occupied rehearsing what they'll say next instead of listening to their co-workers updates, causing them to miss important information.
- Blockers may go unmentioned: Some employees may be reluctant to discuss obstacles or ask for help during stand-ups.
Instead of wasting time with daily standups, a better way alternative is to collect information asynchronously. Asynchronous stand-up meetings, allows your team to send updates asynchronously, so that information can be collected without gathering in real time. This method allows flexibility, increases accountability, and reduces meetings, as updates can be submitted anytime during the day.