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In our team we always have two stand ups each day. One in the morning and then a hand over in the afternoon together with colleagues in another time zone. We usually go around the table so that people can tell what they did the day before and what they'll work on today. It sometimes becomes very detailed and messy.
We are now switching to Kanban but questions come up on how to run those meetings within that framework?
There aren't any Kanban-specific rules for how to run a standup. The concept of a regular - often daily - synchronization meeting exists in a number of methodologies and frameworks, and the same techniques can be applied to a team using Kanban.
I do have three recommendations for improving the standups:
First, don't go "around the table". Walking the board techniques, in my experience, tend to be more effective. Start with the work that is furthest "right" - or closest to being done - on the board. Figure out how the team can get those items done. Then, work backwards, figuring out the best way for the team to progress those items forward and identify anything blocking progress.
Second, find a way to stay out of the messy details. Chances are, even if people are interested in those details, they aren't going to be involved. Bring up the issues, identify who needs to be involved in getting the work progressed closer to done, and coordinate getting the people together and problems solved. Get together and solve the problem outside of the standup.
Third, find a way to get to one standup a day. Even if it's at the end of one day for one team, that team can plan their next day. Reducing the number of meetings like this will reduce context switches in the day and give the team a little more focus time to get work to done.
The daily stand-up meeting or a daily kanban meeting, should kick off your team's workday and lay out a basic strategy for completing tasks. Gather your team for a 15-minute update (an hour after the start of working hours works for me) on job progress and previous day's hurdles so that you can collaborate on the best solution. Checking that the board is up to date makes sense; otherwise, the meeting could go awry.
Meetings should ideally take place in front of the board. Because obstructed issues will be evident on the board, your team should concentrate on the finest and most feasible solutions to the issues. Considering Kanban is all about workflow, your team should discuss any adjustments that may be made to make the process even smoother and more efficient. Allowing modification proposals from any member of the team will encourage them to strive for continuous improvement, increasing the chances of success if there's need for improvement during the project's life cycle. Finally, by commenting on what's in the "done" column, it's critical to acknowledge success, even if it's minor, and to praise the team's efforts.
As others said, you want to understand the purpose of the daily sync so that you can maximise the value your team takes from it. If you'd like to have some more theoretical reference, you might want to start by looking at David Anderson's Essential Kanban Condensed book (there's a free PDF version and it's a very good resource to learn more about Kanban).
Excerpt from it (page 52):
Kanban Meeting: The meeting in front of the kanban board that is both a core social aspect of the method and the most fundamental feedback mechanism, or cadence. It typically occurs daily, and its focus is more on the flow of the work than on the activities of service participants.
As you can see, the underlying purpose boils down to what other answers already provided you.
Disclaimer: I have no involvement whatsoever with Kanban University. I just like to refer to a common material others can access to so that everyone can have the same foundational knowledge.
