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My February newsletter on “Scrapping the Strategic Planning Process” recommended that when establishing objectives start by linking them to the customer. I wrote that keeping the customer as the benchmark can help simplify decision making in complex times and unify staff around common goals.
It generated discussion on the challenges in clarifying priorities and the plans to meet them. We have all been there: figuring out what to do can be a tough decision. “Start, Stop, Continue” can be a helpful and productive method to assess current work, decide on new initiatives and facilitate team involvement in the process as well. I am a big proponent of staff involvement so this exercise can have a big upside on team accountability for plan execution.
Here are a few questions to get you started. One option is to have team members put their ideas on sticky pads for each topic.
START: What should we start doing?
- If it was your organization or money was not an issue, where would you spend it?
- What do you hear the customer wishing for?
- Anything you should test?
WHAT: What should we stop doing?
- Anything not getting the expected results?
- What do you wish you didn’t have to do?
- What items on your task list that do you never seem to get to?
CONTINUE: What should we continue doing?
- What are customers saying they value?”
- What’s working?
- What’s a new initiative we should keep doing?