Scripts for Suggesting Standup Alternatives to Your Manager

Source: Dev.to

Introduction

Fifteen minutes × five days × fifty weeks = 60 hours a year minimum spent announcing what you typed into Jira yesterday.
That number worsens when you factor in the context switch—the morning momentum you lose, the twenty minutes before the meeting when you can’t start anything deep.

You know this is broken. Knowing isn’t the problem. The problem is that the moment you say “I think standups aren’t working,” your manager hears “I don’t want accountability.”

Three Questions to Answer First

1. What does your manager actually care about?
2. What specific problem are you solving?
3. What are you proposing instead?

Sample Conversation Starter

I've been tracking my focus time lately, and I noticed that morning meetings—including standup—tend to fragment my first few hours.

I'm not saying standups aren't valuable, but I've been wondering if there's a way to get the same visibility without breaking up the morning.

Have you seen any teams experiment with async updates?

Why This Works

• Opens with personal data, not ideology
• Doesn’t attack the meeting—questions the format
• Asks for the manager’s perspective

A Concrete Proposal

What if we tried it for two weeks? Async updates every morning—same three questions, posted by 9:30.

At the end of the trial, we check in:
- Did you have the visibility you needed?
- Did any blockers get missed?

If it doesn't work, we go back. I'm happy to facilitate.

Managers often say no to permanent changes because they’re not trained to reject a short‑term experiment. Framing it as a two‑week trial makes the request easier to accept.

Phrasing to Use

• “I’ve been tracking my focus time…”
• “What if we tried it for two weeks?”
• “Same information, different format”

Phrasing to Avoid

• “Standups are a waste of time.”
• “Nobody likes this meeting.”
• “Studies show that…”.

Additional Resources

The full article includes seven complete scripts—retro suggestions, Slack templates, and escalation scripts—available at agilelie.com.