Insights > Lead Forward
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This is the time to Start Stop Continue…

We have the perfect opportunity now to create the culture, companies and world we really want and need. This is a way to begin.

Image credit Jose Gallego Vázquez on Unsplash.com

It’s time to reset.

There’s no going back.

There’s no normal to return to.

The only way is forward.

The only thing left to decide is what you want to move towards.

And so, now is the time to do a Start Stop Continue.

What is Start Stop Continue?

In our leadership development business, one of our key focuses is organisational culture. In making culture better for leaders, employees, customers, and suppliers, we begin by framing the changing of the culture as a transformation.

Culture change needs the significance of being looked at as a full-blown overhaul; a radical shift to become something new and different. A transformation. A new version of the old just won’t cut it. But not all is bad in what you’ve got right now. We just need enough that’s new or significantly better to make the overall culture very different in a productive and positive sense.

When we are working with leaders and teams setting out the framework for the transformation, a Start Stop Continue process is one of the tools we use.

It’s straight forward, something that many of you will be familiar with, but we are frequently surprised by how few people know, let alone use, this tool already.

At the heart of the tool are these three questions;

  • What do you want to START doing that’s completely new?
  • What do you want to STOP that is holding you back or undermining your efforts?
  • What do you want to CONTINUE doing, but change and make better?

As you and your team begin to answer these questions, 3 lists get built. You can then begin to debate the items, prioritise those that should be dealt with first as well as those that need time and attention. Tasks and actions can then be assigned accordingly. You also review the list based on what can and can’t be controlled at a local level — more on this later.

Why we need this now…

With so much of our everyday existence being challenged and changed during the past months of the Coronavirus pandemic, many of our usual routines and assumed norms have been torn down, broken, or majorly disrupted.

The only way through is to imagine the path you will take, and then take the necessary steps to create it.

Through these days of isolation, many people have come to reflect on what’s most important — in life, work and self — and found that for the most part a lot of what they have focused on and devoted time to is not missed. The things that need more of our focus, deserve more of our time and will reward us greatly for the energy we commit to them. These are the things that truely have found that absence makes the heart grow fonder — the time with family and friends, the consideration of purpose, of connection, and understanding why we are here.

The global amplification of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US has also passionately demonstrated that the collective nature of our species; our ability to share purpose to steer necessary change shows us that connected and combined action, centered around shared values and mission, is the only way to overcome systemic apathy, deep-seated fear and wilful neglect by those with the power to make rapid change.

Great challenges await us almost everywhere we care to look; climate change, polemic politics, disruptive business models, emergence of AI and novel wealth creation models (crypto currency etc). There is a threat at some level to almost every system we have known. The only way through is to imagine the path you will take, and then take the necessary steps to create it.

The opportunity before you

Here’s the provocation that is the purpose, and hopefully the outcome, of this article.

You can play your part in this change. You can do your bit to make the change a change for good. You can make a difference everyday with small, deliberate, intentional actions. Those are the steps you can chose to make. And I suggest you start with a Start Stop Continue.

Build your own list now. Go get something to write on. Go now, I’ll wait for you…

Step 1 — Decide what you need to do that you’ve never done before. Those are the things you will START. Then you can chart what you’ll need to do to begin, and sustain those new things.

Step 2 — Now what do you need to STOP. What are the things that are preventing you from making progress? What are the commitments that weigh you down? What are the items that hold you back from moving forward? Are there questions you ask or things you tell yourself that halt your actions, leaving only the sense that you could be doing more? These are the things that need to go before you can succeed in transcending where you are today.

Step 3 — What remains is what you must CONTINUE with, but have the opportunity to make better. How can you improve these things? What do you need to do differently to get an enhanced outcome? What resources do you need to apply to do so? These are the questions you use to assess what you’re doing today that’s helping, but can do so far more productively.

Step 4 — Now let’s hold you accountable to using this list to move forward and get ahead. Share the list with a trusted friend or colleague. Someone who will be supportive of what you want to do, and willing to kick you in the ass if you don’t commit to some goals and do what you say you’ll do. Yes, like a coach.

Step 5 — Do the work. This takes devotion, vulnerability and effort. Recognise and reward the changes you make. Do seek to understand but not over-analyse why things don’t happen, but do challenge how important they are to the overall goal. Many times things don’t get done because we don’t prioritise them yes, but potentially they are not really that much of a priority, otherwise we would have been more committed to making it happen.

Step 6 — Celebrate enough. Don’t forget to call yourself out when you’re hitting the marks, making the shifts and ‘doing the change’.

Step 7 — Refresh the list once in a while. As you progress through your list, you’ll find things change. Things that you thought you should continue become things that need to stop. Or things that you thought would continue but get better actually need to be Started, or be totally different so evolve into something else.

One last thing…on control

A good friend of mine recited an anecdote from one of his mentors which perfectly sums up what you can control.

“Draw a line around your feet with a piece of chalk, as far away as you can reach. Everything inside the line you can control. Everything else you can’t.”

That’s pretty much the truth of it.

So make sure that on your list are mainly things that are inside the line. Not exclusively, but at least the majority. If not, the change just won’t happen. Yes you can influence greatly what happens outside the line, but the best and most powerful way to do so is with actions from inside the line, which set the example, show the way and provide a tangible demonstration for what change can do as you prove the benefits of positive action.

My own version of that expression is this — that the only two things you can completely control each day are the attitude you bring and the effort you apply.

So go decide your attitude, apply your effort, build your list, and make the world a little better every day.

Start, Stop, Continue. Repeat.