Continue Stop Start

 When planning for 2017 with your team or organisation, there are three words that can be very useful: Continue, Stop and Start. These words can bring a simple clarity to the forward planning process. The three words can be posed as questions for your team or organisation to think about for 2017 and beyond.

CONTINUE: What things are going well and should be kept?

It is useful and encouraging to pause at the end of the year to reflect on the elements of your organisation that are going well. "Going well" means the program, service or product is producing the outcomes that were hoped for and is continuing to help the organisation fufill its strategic vision. There needs to be some analysis undertaken to justify it being given the tick of approval. What programs and services are really working and should be kept for 2017?

It is also helpful to look at and value the positive aspects of how members of your organisation work together and treat each other. What are the positive aspects of your organisation's culture that need to be taken with you into 2017?

STOP: What things should we stop doing?

There may be some programs, ways of doing things or patterns of interpersonal relations that should be left in 2016. So often organisations are kept back from maximal effectiveness because they are carrying too much baggage. What aspects of your organisation should be decommissioned? Don't let sentimentality rule the future.

Are there aspects of your organisation's culture that are destructive or unfair? Is their bullying that hasn't been addressed? Are there actions or behaviours happening that lead to team members feeling devalued and unappreciated? Are there organisational decision making structures and communication processes that are hindering advancement? This is a good time to name the items on the STOP list and create pathways for them to actually stop. Wishful thinking is not enough.

START: What new initiatives could be started?

As a result of the stopping you may have created some space for new things to appear. Sometimes organisations claim to be innovative, but their innovations are all things of the past now set in stone. Innovation is a continual process of trying new things. Sometimes they will fail and other times they will succeed. That is the nature of innovation. Has your organisation become stale? What fresh ideas can bring growth for the future? These may be programs, systems, products or finding better ways of people working together. How much of your budget and time goes into research and development?

 For 2017: What do you personally need to continue, stop, start?

What does your organisation need to continue, stop, start?

"The electric light did not come from the continuous improvement of candles"

Oren Harari