SSC | staffing.IQ

Will Wong, April 2020

START | STOP | CONTINUE

A Productivity and Check-In Hack

Looking for a method to gather feedback from your colleagues on current or past projects? How about something for finding structure in a messy situation? Maybe a platform to brainstorm ideas, document changes and track progression? And… would it be too much to ask if one specific technique can do it all?

Then step right up and check out this very powerful yet versatile method called Start/Stop/Continue (SSC). The premise of SSC is simple. First it’s a productivity hack that will help you and your team get more done. Second, it’s a way to get you to know your team members and how they are doing. It’s a check-in activity.

This bad boy is so flexible that you can use it with a group or on an individual level. The SSC retrospective offers up a simple and effective way to reflect on recent experiences so we can use it to decide what to change moving forward.

"Start Stop Continue is a great format to focus on the things that are working (continue), things that are not working (stop) and things that the team should start doing (start). It focus on the past, present and future at the same time." - FunRetro

HOW IT WORKS

Pick a Topic: It can be a big topic that involves a group (developing a master sourcing strategy) or something really focused on the individual level (closing candidates).

Set Goal and KPI: Now turn that topic into a goal with something tangible that you can use to reference progress. For example, if my topic is Closing Candidates, then my KPI could be "Offer to Hire Ratio" and my goal is to "Increase my Offer to Hire Ratio by 15%".

Ask 3 Questions: Every task/action associated with the topic above can be placed into one of three buckets. I ask the Start, Stop and Continue questions (samples below) to figure out which buckets they fall within. It is important that your staff arrives at the answers themselves, even if it means a heavy handed guidance from your side. Never force a solution down their throat - it needs to be something they helped create, can stand behind and think possible. Refer to the LIFT Method if you'd like a refresher.

Bag of Tricks, PeopleResults

Start

"What should we start doing?"

List ideas/items that:

You are not doing, but think you should be
New ideas that have come up or not been considered before
Ideas to address new situations or factors that may not have existed at the beginning of a project or task

Stop

"What should we stop doing?"

List ideas/items that:

Are not working or helping you
Are not having the desired outcome
May have proved to be impractical
We or others dislike

Continue

"What should we continue doing?"

List ideas/items that:

Are working well and want to keep
The team/individual likes and thinks are successful
May be pieces of a process that the team/individual wants to "stop", This keeps us from throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Rinse & Repeat: This process may take some time in the beginning, but once hashed out, each subsequent chat becomes easier and easier. Follow-up meetings begin with celebrating a small win, followed up with our goal and where we're at with the KPI. Then we revisit the SSC to see if anything needs to be adjusted, moved around, or taken off the list. This continues until we reach the goal.

- = - = - = - = - = - = - See It In Action - = - = - = - = - = - = -

We've just wrapped up an event recruiting campaign and want to use this opportunity to solicit feedback from everyone to help improve future efforts.

Strategy is to deploy SSC to look back at the past event (stop & continue) while also looking forward to the next campaign (start doing). This will help develop a list of concrete actions to implement.

Groundwork

Visual Aid

If possible, blow up and print each of the SSC image above (one for start, one for stop and one for continue) and hang it up on the wall. If not, then use 3 flip charts, with each chart reflecting the contents of start, stop and continue. If you're low on funds then just write it on a whiteboard.

Set the Stage

Explain how the technique works.

Review Agenda/Timeline: Total Time = 1.5 hrs

(breakdown: brainstorming=15min, collaboration=10min, voting=5min, discussion = 30min, KPI/Goal=15min)

Brainstorm Session

Solo

10-15 min

Hand out sticky notes to each person (preferably the same color to keep things anonymous).

Remind everyone to keep their thoughts private as of now so they don't influence others

Write out as many ideas as possible to fill up those start/stop/continue buckets.

When the time expires, have them place their sticky notes under the appropriate bucket (start, stop or continue).

Collaboration

10 min

Depending on the size of your team, you can either break them up into teams, or if small enough then just mob it as a single unit.

Instruct them to look at each bucket and see if they can group similar ideas together into logical themes. Reorganize the sticky notes into similar piles. Draw circles around similar ideas. Do this for Start, Stop and Continue.

Optional Play

Dot Voting

5 min

If your team outdid themselves with a ton of ideas, then you'd better prune them down into something more manageable by using the dot voting concept.

Each person will have 5 dots to vote on individual sticky notes or similar idea circles. They can distribute their dots however they like (1 for each idea, or all 5 votes for an idea they think is very important). They cast their vote by putting a dot on the upper right hand corner of the sticky or circle.

Prioritize the ideas based on the number of votes received.

Meat and Potato

Discussion

30-40 min

Try to timebox this by either using the dot voting concept above, or by giving each sticky note 5 to 10 minutes. This may sound like a lot of time for each sticky note, but because many are similar, they won't need to be covered.

Good way to lead off discussion is by asking "Whoever voted for this sticky, please tell us why you voted for it. Why was it important to you?"

Postgame Wrap Up

Goals & KPI's

15 min

List out previous KPIs and most recent results.

Share old KPI's and see if everyone agrees it should be used moving forward. Modify as necessary.

Tie each sticky/idea circle to a specific KPI. One KPI could have multiple sticky note/idea circle associated.

Collectively come up with new goals. Get everyone's buyin.

OK, we just spent 2 hours coming up with a list - now what? The exercise was great, seems methodical, but where do we go from here?

Visual Aid: First, print out a copy for everyone to pin at their desk (sample here). I know, oldschool right? But it works! It works cause we have tons of stuff on our plate and more often than not, things/tasks/thoughts slip thru the cracks. Having reminders is an awesome. Don't be ashamed to go back to basics.

Metrics: Pull metrics every meeting to see where they're making progress or falling short. Since we tied each SSC item to a KPI, if we're failing at a specific KPI, we can refer to the SSC items to see if we are following the right path. Help clear up misunderstandings, tackle roadblocks or troubleshoot inefficiencies as necessary. Feel free to add/modify the SSC if appropriate.

Living Profile: The initial process probably took more time than you'd like, but rest assured that each subsequent revision will be faster and faster as you and your team become more familiar with the process. You'll also have a nice launchpad to jump from once you wrap up with the current campaign. That will significantly reduce the amount of effort for your next brainstorm session.

Final Thoughts