What the huddle screen shows
What should a dental morning huddle cover?
MyDentalForce Morning Huddle shows each office one screen, built before anyone signs in, with everything the huddle needs to cover. The top of the screen is yesterday: production posted against the daily goal, so the day opens on a result rather than a feeling. Below it is today: the schedule by provider, the production already on the books against today's goal, and the gap between the two. That gap is the first decision of the morning, and the answer sits next to it: the open time by operatory and the ranked outreach list, rebuilt every morning from OpenDental, with the patients most likely to fill that time at the top.
The screen then names the patients worth a word before they arrive. Unconfirmed appointments are marked so someone owns the call. High-value visits are visible on the same schedule, so the team knows which chairs carry the day. Patients on today's schedule with open treatment plans are listed with the value attached, so the doctor and assistant know who to talk to and about what. The outreach list shows its own status: how many patients are on it, how many have been worked, and what the worked calls booked.
In a single office, that is the whole huddle on one screen, and the office manager runs it standing up. In a multi-office group, it is the same screen for every location, shown side by side, so an owner or operations lead sees how each office started the day without sitting in any of the rooms. The point is not the screen; it is that the huddle covers the same items in the same order every morning, wherever it happens.
The agenda below is the one we hand to an office when its screen goes live, and it is the outline of our morning huddle template. It totals seven minutes, each segment has one person who speaks, and each segment ends with a decision rather than a discussion.
| Minute | Segment | Who speaks | What it decides |
|---|
| 0:00 to 0:30 | Yesterday against goal | Office manager | Whether yesterday hit its goal and, if not, whether the shortfall was open time, cancellations or unposted work. |
|---|
| 0:30 to 1:30 | Today's schedule and production on the books | Office manager | The size of today's gap against goal and which provider's column carries it. |
|---|
| 1:30 to 3:00 | Open time and the fill list | Scheduling coordinator | Who calls the top of the ranked list for each open slot, and by what time. |
|---|
| 3:00 to 4:00 | Unconfirmed and high-value patients | Front desk | Who owns each unconfirmed call before that patient's arrival time, and which visits the day depends on. |
|---|
| 4:00 to 5:00 | Open treatment on today's schedule | Doctor and assistant | Which patients get a treatment conversation today, who opens it, and what the case is worth. |
|---|
| 5:00 to 5:30 | Outreach list status | Outreach owner | Whether yesterday's list was finished, and who works today's list and when. |
|---|
| 5:30 to 6:30 | One operational item | Whoever raised it | A lab case due, a staffing gap or a supply issue, with an owner; anything else waits for the weekly meeting. |
|---|
| 6:30 to 7:00 | Owners and close | Office manager | Every open item read back with a name next to it; the huddle ends when nothing is unowned. |
|---|
The companion article, The 7-minute dental morning huddle: agenda and template, walks through each segment and gives you the template to run it from. For the definition and the metrics that belong on a huddle, read the morning huddle glossary entry, and for why the same start in every office matters more than any single great morning, read The daily standard.
