Have you taken time to evaluate last year’s projects or programs? It’s the beginning of a new year – the perfect time to do project course corrections with your team. What questions are necessary for project evaluations to provide innovation and improvements for your organization? It’s time to implement a simple process called the Stop, Continue, Start method when evaluating key areas such as meetings, stakeholder management, risk management, training, onboarding, reporting, changes and requests. This easy exercise can help you manage your business, team, and project more efficiently. It allows you to think through what you need to continue, stop, or start doing.
Have you taken time to evaluate last year’s projects or programs?
It’s the beginning of a new year – the perfect time to do project course corrections with your team. Besides, the last year was eventful; the pandemic forced every organization to operate differently.
Now is the best time to step back and think of how these changes will affect your programs and initiatives this year.
- What are the things your organization should be doing to take advantage of these changes?
- What are the things that are no longer relevant in the current situation?
- How can you manage your team effectively in light of these changes?
These questions are necessary for project evaluations and may provide innovation and improvements for your organization.
Do you know what process is simple to remember during a performance review?
The Stop, Continue, Start method!
This easy exercise can help you manage your business, team, and project more efficiently. It allows you to think through what you need to continue, stop, or start doing.
Here are 7 areas that should be considered, among many more, for the Stop, Continue, Start exercise.
Meetings
Meetings are a crucial part of project management. So, that is one of the areas you should perform a Stop, Continue, Start exercise. Plus, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed how meetings operate – a shift from mostly physical sessions to virtual meetings.
- What are the things you should start to make your meeting run more effectively?
- What are the things you should stop doing to make your meeting less time-consuming?
- Do you need to stop/continue/start using a specific platform for your meetings?
For example, should you conduct some meetings via phone and stop doing all meetings via video because everyone on the team is suffering from Zoom fatigue?
Should some meetings be “hybrid” meetings, because some employees are working from home while others are now working at the office?
Stakeholder Management
Your stakeholders – your team, clients, and management, are the backbone of your project. As a program director or project manager, it is your responsibility to manage how well stakeholders receive information.
You can use your stop, continue, start exercise to determine:
- What are the things you can start/stop to help you with your stakeholder management?
- What you can start or continue to help you manage information dissemination well.
For example, should you stop sending broadcast emails and start calling individuals to encourage more effective conversations and, in turn, improve communication with stakeholders? You can use this exercise to revisit your stakeholder register to identify if there are new stakeholder groups to add, or stakeholder groups to remove from the list.
Changes & Requests
Changes and requests occur often throughout the course of a project. They are necessary for growth. On the other hand, how well you handle them determines if they will improve your project.
So, during your project or program evaluation, you can discuss:
- What are the processes that you should stop doing because they impede your ability to manage changes/requests?
- Are there better ways you can handle your requests?
- What can you start doing to implement changes better?
For example, maybe you should stop receiving change requests via fax because no one is faxing anymore? As as result, you may need to consider implementation of a web based change request system to increase efficiency.
Risk Management
For any project, you must have a proper risk management plan in place to identify and take care of issues as they arise. To keep your risk register up to date, you should carry out the Stop, Continue, Start exercise often to mitigate new risks as they emerge.
- What risk mitigation practices should you start to make it easier for you to identify and manage risks?
- What risk management processes do you have in place that have proven effective?
- Do you have practices you need to stop?
For example, is it possible that management needs to revisit their emergency contact list? Is management ready to take the necessary action to contact their team during a time of crisis, such as the U.S. Capitol riots? Do they have an updated cell phone list to ensure they can get in touch with their team members?
Training
Training is a crucial process in every organization. It exposes your team members to new and more effective ways of tackling the task at hand. Due to pandemic restrictions, training your team may become increasingly challenging.
An excellent way to tackle this problem during performance evaluation is to use the Stop, Continue, Start exercise.
- In the light of the recent changes, what are things you can start to make training your personnel easier?
- Should you continue/stop in-person training? Or start virtual training?
- What can you initiate to make your team members take advantage of the training?
For example, as a program manager, maybe you need to find a service provider that can assist your staff with Microsoft teams training?
Onboarding
Effective onboarding is essential to incorporate new members and programs into your organization without disrupting the workflow.
- How efficient is your current process? Do you need to start a new onboarding process?
- Are there practices you need to remove (stop) from your onboarding process?
For example, maybe you will start using a new onboarding system to more effectively manage your growing team or project portfolio? Maybe you will need to stop using the paper system and move your onboarding process online to a more intuitive web based platform?
Reporting
Reporting is crucial to let your stakeholders know about your project’s progress. So, you should also evaluate your reporting system to ensure you aren’t lacking in that area.
- What action should you take to help your team report better?
- What are the irrelevant things you need to stop reporting on?
- What are the things you need to continue or improve?
Should you stop tracking a certain metric because it is no longer relevant, for example, fax numbers?
How to Execute the Stop, Continue, Start Exercise
The best way to run the Stop, Continue, Start exercise for your project is to perform it with your team. Create a time for you and your team to review each element of this exercise. By asking questions, you can categorize their input as stop, continue, or start.
Ask for your team members’ input. Their feedback will help you in making the right decision. Take advantage of this team-building exercise!
Conclusion
In summary, these are the things that a project manager, program manager, PMO, or senior level manager would consider to improve their project/program. Of course, the point of executing the Start, Continue, Stop exercise is to act on your findings.
Once you have completed your list, make it a point of duty to consult the list regularly. This will promote movement in the right direction towards your program’s goals, as well as your overall company’s mission.
This visual template can help you carry out your Stop, Continue, Start Exercise efficiently. Click here to print the template and instructions.
Lisa
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