What Good Standups Actually Sound Like

Most standups decay into status theater within a month. Ours didn’t, and I think it’s because we banned one specific sentence: "no blockers."

If you say "no blockers," you have to name a risk instead

Forcing the team to surface a risk — even a minor one — instead of defaulting to "no blockers" kept the meeting honest. Risks surfaced two days earlier on average than they would have otherwise.