Last week, 15 of us met to brainstorm what changes we needed to have in our organization next year. The meeting facilitator had us break out into two groups. On various topics, such as "Tasks", "Rewards", "Structure", "Information Systems", we were supposed to collect feedback from each group.
The facilitator said we should structure our conversations by identifying what we should "Start", "Stop", and "Continue". That's the normal way we collect feedback in our company: start-stop-continue. But I don't like that order. The emphasis is wrong. What should we START doing because we've been missing the boat? What should we STOP doing because we've been screwing up? The most important question is what should we CONTINUE doing because it's been working well? What has been our strength? What should we do more of because it brings out our best performance and results?
I was facilitating one of the two groups, and I insisted on changing the order and the emphasis: Continue, Start, and Stop. This seemed to energize people. We spent our time appreciating the best things they were doing and defining plans to make these things even stronger next year. And, when we talked about what to START doing, it tended to be things related to what we already have been doing well. As far as what to STOP? We often didn't get around to writing anything down, and that was OK with me.
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