Object of Play
The object of Start, Stop, Continue is to examine aspects of a situation or develop next steps.
Number of Players
1–10
Duration of Play
10 minutes to 1 hour
How to Play
Ask the group to consider the current situation or goal and individually brainstorm actions in these three categories:
- Start: What are things that we need to START doing?
- Stop: What are we currently doing that we can or should STOP?
- Continue: What are we doing now that works and should CONTINUE?
Have individuals share their results.
Strategy
This exercise is broad enough to work well as an opening or closing exercise. It’s useful in framing discussion at “problem-solving” meetings, or as a way to brainstorm aspirational steps toward a vision.
The source for the Start, Stop, Continue game is unknown.
I recently played a version of this game that we called Toss, Save, and Create — but that basically maps to Stop, Continue, and Start… 😉 Either way, it was a great exercise for finding structure in a messy situation.
This is very powerful technique indeed.
It can be used in many ways, for example as a way to gather feedback from your workmates.
If you’d like to do it online check a tool I created http://start-stop-continue.com . It’s quick, simple but still can be very effective.
As it’s my side project it’s free and no credit card or registration is required. I’m just glad to see people using it.