Start, Stop, Continue

A simple & effective team reflection ritual.

We’re in the midst of planning, so the way teams reflect and systematically improve is on my mind. In my experience, teams that consistently create safe spaces for reflection and couple it with clear follow-up action, tend to outperform teams that don’t.

One of my favorite rituals on this topic is a very simple one called ‘Start, Stop, Continue.’ As it sounds, it’s a clear way to collect input and reflect on it as a team. The three questions are:

• Start — what should we start doing?

• Stop — what should we stop doing?

• Continue — what should we continue doing?

I like how it gives an open forum to say explicitly what we should stop doing. And at the same time, it also gives a chance to say ‘let’s continue doing this.’ That way teams can celebrate each others efforts, and double down on what’s already working. Some of the most healthy team discussions I’ve observed have started with this super simple prompt. And the key is to build it into your regular cadence. Below is an example of how we run the exercise. What reflection ritual does your team rely on?