A Thinking Process Every Leader Must Know

Every good leader has a col­lec­tion of tools they draw from to pro­mote bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tion within their team. Some of these tools are use­ful because they help the leader to gather accu­rate and real­is­tic infor­ma­tion from within. This infor­ma­tion can be used to make deci­sions that will lead to greater suc­cess and improved team culture.

Some years ago, Build­ing Cham­pi­ons Coach Ray­mond Glea­son shared a think­ing process with me which has rev­o­lu­tion­ized both the way we com­mu­ni­cate inter­nally, and the way I coach my clients. I have coached hun­dreds of lead­ers through this process, and all have shared with me that they have got­ten pow­er­ful results.
It’s called the “Keep-Start-Stop.”
The Keep-Start-Stop (or KSS) is a sim­ple process, in which you ask a spe­cific team mem­ber, depart­ment, or the entire com­pany to sug­gest what cur­rent behav­iors or prac­tices need to con­tinue, begin, or stop.
KEEP asks, “What are the behav­iors that we as a com­pany (or I as a leader) need to keep doing in order to have the great­est level of suc­cess?” The “keep” responses are an indi­ca­tion of what is work­ing well.
START asks, “What do we need to start doing that we haven’t been doing already in order to have the great­est level of suc­cess?” The “start” responses could gen­er­ate cre­ative new ideas, or point toward things that have been missing.
STOP asks, “What do we need to stop doing? What is hin­der­ing our suc­cess?” Responses about what to “stop” are usu­ally indi­ca­tors of things that are work­ing, or that have been caus­ing stress and frus­tra­tion within the team.
KSS can be used by an entire team, a depart­ment, one-on-one, or even for self-evaluation. Responses can be shared off the cuff dur­ing a meet­ing, or anony­mously in writ­ten form. In fact, this exer­cise can be tai­lored to a num­ber of sit­u­a­tions, though I heartily rec­om­mend that you not rearrange the order of the Keep, Start, and Stop. By keep­ing them in this order, you will usu­ally find a list heavy on the “keep” side and light on the “stop” side, mak­ing this a great process for team build­ing and collaboration.
The frame­work of the Keep-Start-Stop pro­vides a safe out­let for feed­back, while prompt­ing the kind of thought­ful responses you won’t get from a sug­ges­tion box.

Try it, and I am sure you will reap the ben­e­fits of valu­able information.