Tag: development

How To Improve With The Start Stop Continue Retrospective

Design Thinking, Discussion, Mental ModelsPublished onUpdated on1 Comment on How To Improve With The Start Stop Continue Retrospective

The Start Stop Continue routine has been around for decades. It is commonly used as a ‘retrospective’ activity in Agile development and Scrum meetings.

Our development toolkit is filled with templates, activities and protocols for reflection, but often the simplest tool can be the most effective.

In this post, I explore the fundamental components of the reflection, how you can use it and the benefits. I also share an extended version that gives you some new options to try in your next review session.

Before you finish make sure you grab a copy of the editable PDF resource for the Start Stop Continue extended version. You can use it in your next meeting.

Start Stop Continue

In its simplest form, the protocol explores the three actions of its namesake. When you are reviewing the development of your project or even your own teaching practice, ask these three simple questions.

  • What should I stop doing?
  • What should I keep doing?
  • What should I start doing?

What are the benefits?

  • Provides a clear and comprehensive structure for agreeing on and setting actions.
  • Helps teams explore different types of improvements, using three different triggers.
  • Makes it easier for individuals to talk about what is not working and clarify issues.
  • Simple and memorable enough to be conducted quickly with little preparation.
  • Flexible enough to be valuable for individuals or large teams.

How do I facilitate the Start Stop Continue?

The first thing to do is grab a copy of the editable PDF resource for the Start Stop Continue. All of the sample questions below are included in the download.

This retrospective model will help you and your team explore what is working, what is not effective and what might be useful to try.

To support this and make it easier for participants, use some of the example questions below:

Start

  • What practices do you need to START doing?
  • Outline some of the new ideas that you want to start?
  • What are the habits you want to start?

Stop

  • What negative practices do you need to STOP?
  • What are the low-impact processes which need to stop?
  • What do you need to stop investing in?

Continue

  • What established practices do you need to CONTINUE doing?
  • Which aspects of your work need to be maintained?
  • What needs continued investment to maintain the impact you want to see?

A useful hack from Sarah Beldo, Head of Content and Communications at Miro, is to switch the order a little:

I’ve found that people find it easier to think about what already exists – both the good (“continue”) and the bad (“stop”), before venturing into uncharted territory (“start”).

Sarah Beldo, 7 retrospective templates we love and use at Miro
Start Stop Continue

Extend Your Reflection

Beyond the core Start Stop Continue routine, we can extend the reflection protocol in a few different directions. I think these provocations offer some much-needed nuance to the activity.

For example, the option to Pause, and not just Stop, is a useful distinction. The addition of shifting the thinking frame forward and back in time helps us to consider some important strategic modes of reflection.

I have developed the following additional provocations to complement the core trio and help you facilitate a comprehensive reflection.

Improve

  • What aspects of your practice can you IMPROVE?
  • Which parts of your project have room for growth?
  • What changes can you make to increase the impact?

Pause

  • Which elements of our work need to be PAUSED to allow resources to shift elsewhere?
  • Which projects would benefit from a short developmental hiatus?
  • Which projects are a priority and would benefit from other elements being PAUSED?

Fast Forward

  • Which aspects of this project would benefit from an increase in pace?
  • How might we increase the speed of development?
  • In the future what might be a block or challenge to the success of this?

Rewind

  • What have we learned from the story of development so far?
  • If we returned to the beginning of this project what would we start with?
  • What can we learn from how this problem was handled in the past?

Challenge

  • Which assumptions do we need to CHALLENGE?
  • What bias do you need to talk about and better understand?
  • What will you do to disrupt and challenge the status quo?

Download your editable PDF

If you are interested in this extended version of the model you can download an editable PDF. Just subscribe to my weekly newsletter and I will send you a copy.

Potential Uses and Applications

  • You have reached the end of a teaching placement, and you want to capture your reflections.
  • Your team is making progress with the implementation of a new programme prototype and you want to refine the approach.
  • You want a simple structure to use with your coach to reflect on the past few weeks.
  • During a weekly catchup with one of your team, you want to implement a simple structure for personal/professional mentorship.
  • At the beginning of the term, you want a framework for some collective reflection for your class.
  • You have moved into new learning spaces and need a tool to review what is working and what needs changing.

Further Reading and Resources

7 retrospective templates we love and use at Miro – MiroBlog | A blog by Miro. (2020)

Start, Stop, Continue Tutorial by Say, M. | Forbes. (2021)

The Stop, Start, Continue Approach To Feedback | The World of Work Project. (2019)

Start Stop Continue Template & Start Stop Continue Retrospective | Miro Template Library. (2021)

The Shape of the Lens

Featured, Leadership, Mental Models, ThinkingPublished onUpdated on2 Comments on The Shape of the Lens

Inspired by an optics metaphor used in ethnography, this mental model explores our perception and understanding of behaviour. Use it as part of your team’s developmental dialogue and process.

Seeing through a lens

We all bring a different perspective to the challenges we face. My story and my experience is my bias. Recognising this foundational truth to collaboration is an important step.

Explore with your team the lenses that can be held up to view the situation you are in. Consider the lenses that are present in your group and those perspectives not immediately present.

However we are not just looking through a lens, we are attempting to see. Consider what it takes to shift our perspective and reveal gaps in our understanding. Follow your curiosity and deepen your understanding of alternative perspectives.

Your Talking Points

  • How does my bias impact what I see here?
  • Are we all using the same lens on this situation?
  • What combination of lenses might offer something new?
  • Which lenses are more opaque to us?
  • Which perspective should be represented more clearly?

Hold up a mirror

A further step is to hold up a mirror and consider our own participation in an issue, problem or challenge. Am I part of the problem?

When we look back, at first, we may identify the role we play or acknowledge our influence on an issue. We may reflect on the positive, negative or neutral impact we have on a situation.

When we look closer and see ourselves, we increase self-awareness which is an important trigger for learning and growth. Reflexivity is that circular loop of seeing and changing because we see.

Look through a lens, but hold up a mirror too.

Your Talking Points

  • How does this situation provoke my thinking?
  • What am I noticing my thinking is drifting to?
  • How might I change as a result of this?
  • What harm might I be causing?
  • This has helped me to change because…

What’s in the shadows?

Ethnographic studies of human behaviour often refer to the goal, to uncover the unmet needs or poorly defined issues. For our model here we describe that as exploring what is in the shadows.

These are issues or challenges at the root of behaviour. However they may be masked, obscured or in shadow from everyone. With your team explore the shadows and consider what is poorly represented, unspoken or missing from your dialogue and discussion.

It is a challenge to see what is cloaked and obfuscated. This takes time. Commit to your inquiry and use a range of data sources to reveal more and more. Perhaps data becomes your torch exploring and illuminating the shadow.

Your Talking Points

  • A blind spot for me is…
  • What are we not paying attention to?
  • How do we know this is the right problem to be solving?
  • What is distracting our attention here?
  • If we looked in the opposite direction what might we see?

See through a lens ~ Hold up a mirror ~ Explore the shadows

Photo by Jon Eric Marababol

Set Your Design Thinking Process up for Success

Design Thinking, FeaturedPublished onUpdated on2 Comments on Set Your Design Thinking Process up for Success

On Tuesday I co-facilitated a design thinking education event with Google in Melbourne. We worked alongside 50 teachers from Catholic schools.

It got me wondering about what it takes to get the most from a design thinking (DT) process. Although my lense is for teachers and education teams, these ideas apply to anyone using the DT process.

For each idea, I have shared some links to further articles and readings to allow you to dig deeper.

Context

Design Thinking (DT) has to be meaningful for us to make the most from it. Connecting to a clear context is a vital commitment. We might do this by thinking clearly about the people at the heart of the problem. Unless we have a meaningful purpose we might easily check out.

Collaboration

Forming a team to work with is a basic tenet of quality design thinking. Every phase of DT benefits from sharing and critique from others. In fact when we say “How Might We” we are signalling our intent to share and create a solution with others.

Concept

Our willingness to explore ideas that are barely formed is a critical disposition. In fact, we might say this is a prototyping disposition. Ideas and solutions from DT are often first explored in conceptual ways. We need to know when to bridge from this to enacted or built forms.

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Challenge

There has to be enough of this component to instil an urgent, edge of your seat, discomfort to do good. Our message to the teachers was to take the ideas and make them happen. Build-in milestones and opportunities for really early (painfully early) feedback with the people we are trying to help. Increasing the level of challenge often materialises from connecting our DT process to a real context or stakeholder group. Invite them in to see your results – keep the whole effort grounded in who we are trying to help.

Conditions

The teachers working with us were outside of their normal physical space. The renowned function and aesthetic of a Google workplace formed a provocative backdrop for our group. This was not just the living moss wall Google sign in the Melbourne office or perfectly formed booths, it is what these spaces represent. If we want more creative thinking in our schools, we need to consider how the physical environment can mediate that.

Another key reflection from one of the participants about the conditions was time. I know that allowing ourselves dedicated time to immerse in a topic or challenge is very powerful. It often feels like a luxury, but we will likely be more creative and productive if we can be present and focused.

Critique

One of the ways I describe the prototyping phase of DT is that it is about communicating your idea so that other people can share feedback. A prototype is not an end of itself. It is created to provoke critique from others so that we can refine our idea and make another version.

But the impact of critique cuts through the whole process. Early feedback helps us understand we are on track. Critique about our reframed problem always provides a new perspective or language we can use.

Culture

The big question for us all is how we shift the culture in our schools. The design thinking process challenges our capacities and dispositions – perhaps stretching them in new ways.

But really it is the persistent, ongoing, intentional use of the DT protocols and practices that reap the greatest reward. Not just once every term but an effort over many months and years.

When we utilise DT day in day out. When we normalise the language and the critical thinking expectations, that come with DT, it elevates the impact beyond just a process to a better collaborative culture.

An interesting mix of ideas there for you to ponder on. Certainly not an exhaustive list of the considerations, but a strong set of provocations nonetheless.

In order for us to make the most of the Design Thinking process we need the tools and activities, but perhaps, more importantly, we need to intentionally build the best possible conditions for the deeply creative and critical thinking that occurs.

Google for Education, Forward events are an opportunity for Educators, IT leaders, Googlers and Design Thinkers to tackle some of the big educational challenges we face. This is a chance to bring your creativity, collaboration skills and critical thinking to an authentic challenge.

Drop me a note if you are interested in learning more about these events.

tom@dialogiclearning.com

6 Protocols To Help You Run Better Meetings

LeadershipPublished onUpdated onLeave a Comment on 6 Protocols To Help You Run Better Meetings

One of the most effective strategies to run better meetings and development sessions is to establish a set of protocols at the start. These working norms should be discussed and shared before you begin and even used to help you debrief.

We have all probably experienced these in some form or another – no technology, come with an open mind, somebody to take minutes – the usual stuff we encounter. In this post, I present a range of alternative protocols I know work from years of application.

Collective Responsibility

Use this protocol to encourage everyone to step up

Although one person may have convened a session or be running the meeting it is always beneficial to discuss how every participant can contribute.

I often couple this with a Step Up Step Back protocol – which emphasises the need for everyone to contribute. Participants are not attending to simply warm the seats.

Sessions are more effective when there is a shared and collective responsibility to work successfully together and not just be on the shoulders of one person.

Approve or Improve

Use this protocol to improve giving feedback

Develop the expectation that feedback is done under the protocol of approving an idea or helping to improve and develop it further.

Feedback should not be so the giver has air time. Critique should help move an idea forward.

Hold your Ideas Lightly

Use this protocol to improve receiving feedback

How we receive feedback is probably more important than how we give it.

To help you when inviting feedback think about Holding Your Ideas Lightly so that others can offer critique.

Avoid clutching your idea so tightly that others can’t help. Effective feedback needs an open disposition

W.A.I.T – Why Am I Talking?

Use this protocol to develop meta-cognition

Before you contribute take some moments to pause and reflect on why you are contributing. Get into the habit of asking some simple questions:

What is my intention behind what I am about to say?

Is there a question I could ask that would help me better understand what the other person is saying and perceiving?

How might I simply listen and let go of my urge to talk in this moment?

Write stuff down and create artefacts

Use this protocol to make your thinking visible

Such a simple protocol and something that is often overlooked as everyone starts up their laptops as they settle into the session.

Make room for materials in the middle of the table and describe how making your thinking more visible and tangible will aid development.

Use index cards or post-it notes to scribe ideas and jot down themes from discussions. Get into the habit as a team of writing stuff down.

Talk about the Talking

Use this protocol to better transition into the meeting

All too often we jump headlong into the agenda. With no intentional transition we are often left reeling with our minds still caught up with the work you just left or from the meeting you have just walked out of.

By making time to deliberately Talk About the Talking you address the change and shift in pace and allow participants time to settle in.

As a team gets into the habit of exploring what the work will require of us, will it be creative or analytical thinking? Will we be unpacking something or exploring new concepts?

Taking a few moments to prime everyone and transition well invariably leads to a better meeting.

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Protocols are expectations that you make explicit and that shape and guide the experience you have with others. Over time and with consistency these expectations become common practice and a normal part of your successful meetings.

These five ideas are an extension of the core protocols that I have been using for years – let me know what protocols and structures work for you.

Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash

How to frame and reframe a problem

Design ThinkingPublished onUpdated on1 Comment on How to frame and reframe a problem

When you are participating in a Design Thinking process a crucial phase is the time when your team begins to define the problem you are attempting to solve.

This method outlined by Design Kit refers to framing the problem and is a powerful process you can use to increase the quality of the problem statements you are generating.

Rushing into Ideas

You may already know that once we have defined the problem we move into generating ideas. This is a critical transition and one we all have a tendency to rush.

We all enjoy the energy lift and change of pace of generating and developing ideas. In fact, many teams can’t help themselves and skip over the definition of the problem too quickly.

So the issue is often that we bounce too quickly onto ideation and we do not spend long enough in the problem state. Then we are left with ill-defined problems – too broad, too narrow, not worthwhile, are all characteristics you might look out for when reviewing your problem statements.

The framing and re-framing process force us to loop back into the process of defining the problem a little longer. It slows us down a little and checks our enthusiasm to rush ahead and ensures we have carefully crafted our problem statement and it is an accurate reflection of a worthwhile issue.

Step by Step Process

I have adapted some of the Design Kit steps below and have a HMW Framing template you can download here (just sign up to my newsletter to gain access)

  1. Describe the problem or issue
  2. List the stakeholders
  3. Re-frame the issue as a How Might We statement
  4. Describe the impact you are attempting to have.
  5. Who needs your help the most?
  6. What are some possible solutions to your problem?
  7. Describe the context and constraints you have to your future ideas.
  8. Re-write a different version of your original HMW statement.

Download the template here.

A clearly focused problem statement invariably yields both greater quantity and higher quality solutions (Stanford d.school, 2011)

FREE Bonus Problem Framing Resource

My Problem Framing template will help you to structure the process of defining a problem or challenge more clearly.

The PDF resource includes

  • Step by step process to follow.
  • Key provocations to challenge your thinking.
  • Space to iterate and create multiple versions.
  • Graphic organiser structure.

Download your copy of the resource by subscribing to my small but perfectly formed newsletter, the Dialogic Learning Weekly – ideas and insight about Innovation, Leadership and Learning.

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash