Start – Stop – Continue

This is an age old brainstorming activity which is being used in many training programs, workout sessions, project meetings, year end discussions and various other forums.

This is mainly used as group activity with a facilitator. However, this can also be used by individuals.

The purpose of this activity is to help participants stay organised and plan effectively to achieve their goals.

What is this activity

In this brainstorming activity, you have to list down your steps / actions into three categories:

Start

What you should start doing to achieve the desired results?

List all the activities that the group or you are not doing and should start doing.

Stop

What is that you or the group are doing and should stop doing?

List all the activities that you are currently doing and are not reaping any benefits. You should stop doing such activities.

Continue

What you should continue to do as is?

List all the activities that you or the group are doing and are reaping the desired benefits. Continue to do them.

How to use this technique?

It is a simple yet effective activity. All you have to do is, pick up a topic you want to brainstorm on or create steps for.

Once you have chosen the topic, next step is to ask the group to list down all the activities under the start – stop – continue categories, one by one. As a facilitator, you have to give them specific time to list down activities under each category.

Summarise

Last step would be to summarise all the points that you have gathered in this session. Discuss all the points under each category with the group and shortlist the final ones that would result in highest benefit.

You could use flipchart to list down the selected activities.

Your detailed steps to achieve a goal are ready!!!