How I Use Keep / Start / Stop for Leadership Growth

As creative leaders, our jobs can often be quite distracting. 

We’re often bouncing from meeting to meeting, from project to project, responding to message after message throughout our day. The requirements of a creative team juggling the never-ending flow of project requests and campaign kickoffs can feel akin to us navigating our way down a raging river together. At times, a fun and thrilling experience, then the next minute a stressful, nail-biting experience. 

If we don’t intentionally set aside time to reflect on how we work together, this pace and distraction management can result in leaders missing important details. Is your leadership helping your team? Where are your blind spots? Are there things you could be doing more of? Or, and most importantly, are there things you’re doing that may be negatively impacting your team? 

That is exactly why I started using the Keep / Start / Stop method with my creative teams. Keep / Start / Stop is a quarterly reflective practice that gives you, as the leader of your team, an opportunity to dig into what’s working (Keep), what we can be doing more of (Start), and what’s not working (Stop) for each of your team members. Not only does this have the potential to provide you with a treasure trove of feedback from your individual team members, but it also helps to reinforce (if done correctly) trust between you and your team members. While the feedback is crucial to your leadership practice and also retaining engagement on your team, this process is also great at building ongoing trust and psychological safety within your team. 

Leadership Tip:
I also give each of my team members the option for me to do a Keep/Start/Stop for them as well. I’ve yet to have anyone turn this down, and it’s always been a great experience. It makes the process feel more like a shared exchange and ensures they’re getting regular, thoughtful feedback from me as well. 

Facilitation Notes 

This process is not just about problem-solving. It’s also about creating a space for your team members to share. Your goal is for each team member to feel heard and trust that they can speak openly without fear of consequences or invalidation. 

Where this can get tricky is when you receive feedback that just isn’t realistic or possible. I want you to resist the urge to respond or react too quickly (especially if it’s something in the Stop category). Much like when we have a stakeholder who wants something that can’t reasonably be done, you still have an opportunity to dig a bit deeper and learn more. 

In this moment, focus on asking questions to understand the why behind the ask. 

“Tell me a bit more about that,” or “Why do you think that is?” 

If you’re feeling pressure from the team member to give a more definitive answer on the issue during this process, let them know that you would like some time to think about this before getting back to them. Depending on the scale of the issue, this may need to be an ongoing conversation between you and your team member. Don’t feel pressured to have this all buttoned up in one conversation. The key here is for your team member to feel like you have done everything you can to understand their perspective, not for you to do something you aren’t comfortable with or for them to feel like you brushed their feelings aside.

Wrapping this all up
Empathy is a crucial part of building trust. You don’t have to agree with someone to be able to empathize with them. Remember that. As you go through this process, you don’t have to solve everything in that moment. Sometimes, listening and empathizing can be the most impactful thing you can do as a leader.

The Process In Practice

Here are the steps to follow when you are ready to implement this process with your team.

1. Inform: While this process is meant to be done one-on-one, I recommend letting your team know about this process all at once (for those with teams larger than one, of course). This helps to reinforce that this is something everyone is doing,reducing the chance that people mistake this for a performance review in disguise. This time also allows you to set expectations and facilitate a group discussion around any questions or concerns they may have.
   • Facilitation Tip: This is also where you can plant the seed that you are open to doing one for each of them as well. Make sure to check back in with them after distributing this to see if they would like one from you as well. (Most do, by the way. I have yet to have anyone say no to this request.)
     
2. Distribute: Send each member their own Keep / Start / Stop reflection form (I’ve included in this post a pre-built template you are welcome to use).
   • Facilitation Tip: Depending on your company’s G-Suite settings, check to make sure each of the docs you create for your individual team members is private between you two and not easily accessible by the rest of your org. Probably not going to be an issue for most of you, but it’s worth double-checking.
     
3. Schedule: When you send your team their templates to fill out, give them two weeks to work on them. I know that may seem like a long time, but it’s important to respect that while this is something to support them, you are adding more work to their plate. Also, in my experience, some people can fill this out in a day, and others need time and space to reflect on our work together in the previous quarter. Don’t rush or pressure them, as it will result in less thoughtful responses. Also, when you are ready to schedule the time on your calendars, plan for an hour. You might not need this much time, but depending on the person and the flow of conversation, an hour can go fast.
   • Facilitation Tip: Don’t assume that your recurring 1:1 will be when you review this. Not only is that their time to choose how it’s spent, but having a meeting on their calendar that says “Keep / Start / Stop Review” instead of “Weekly 1:1” makes this a more realistic deadline and not something that can be easily forgotten.
     
4. Check-In: Speaking of deadlines and 1:1’s, make sure to use your weekly 1:1’s to check in on progress and ensure this hasn’t been forgotten. Our goal is to give them the space and time to provide us with thoughtful responses, rather than having them cram the night before.
   • Facilitation Tip: Remember your role is to guide and facilitate this process. Don’t set and forget this with your team until the day of review, because there’s a very good chance your team will do the same.
     
5. Review: So the big day is here! Here is the approach I take for the live conversation;
   • Start with gratitude: Thank them for participating. This process takes a lot of courage and trust from both parties. 
   • Reinforce the purpose: Next reinforce the purpose of this process. This is a reflection practice that helps you get to know them better and a tool to improve how you both work together. 
   • Ask how they would like to start: Would they like to read their Keep/Start/Stop or would they prefer if you read through it yourself? It will be different for each team member. Some want to jump right in, but others might be a bit more nervous and prefer it if you walk through it.
     • Facilitation Tip: When I am presenting my Keep / Start / Stop that I prepared for each of my team members, it’s my preference to go last. I prefer for them to start, because I don’t want their attention distracted by what I covered in mine when it’s their turn to go. Also, this process is to help them build the muscle around providing feedback, so whatever feedback I provide (while important) is second to the work they are doing in this process. In the end, you have to decide what you think works best, but I’ve found this approach to work the best. 
   • Ask questions, don’t problem solve: Not every entry in this deserves a deep dive, but trust your gut, if something comes up that you think is important to dig into more, don’t be afraid to say, “Let’s pause on that for a second. Tell me more about that.” Also, as always, don’t immediately jump into problem-solving mode. 
   • Finish with gratitude and next steps: You have covered a lot in the last hour. In some instances, it may have even been a tough conversation. So, don’t forget to pause at the end, and thank them again for the courage and the trust they displayed throughout this process. Also, if there are things that came up that you said you needed time to reflect on, set a time to follow-up with them.
     
6. Follow-Up: For some people, this process is a nice place to share their feelings and talk through some things that have been on their mind. For others, there are going to be actionable insights that you will need to follow up on. Use the following 1:1 to check in on how the process went for them, as well as any action plans you aligned to in the session. Don’t forget this step. This follow-up not only helps to make sure you put into action what you aligned on during this conversation, but also continues to underline to them that their experience at work matters to you.
   • Facilitation Tip: If there isn’t anything actionable to follow up on, still make sure to check in and see what they thought of the process. 

The Wrap Up

For someone new to this process, this may feel like a lot to digest all at once. That’s totally normal. Just be patient with yourself. 

Part of your job as their leader is to model trying new strategies for them, and understanding that things not going perfectly is all part of the process of growing. It’s okay to even say as much to your team. This is new for you;, you’re trying it out for the first time. Their experience at work, and how you lead, is important enough that you are willing to try this out.

The most important thing to remember when you start this is that you’re doing this because you care, and that matters. Keep going.

Have any questions or want to share how this went? Feel free to drop me a comment here or reach out to me at chrispizzodesign@gmail.com.