Turn honest feedback into actionable insight
Stop, Start, Keep, Tweak helps teams turn honest feedback into actionable insight.
Bill writes about SSKT Pulse Check in chapter 11.
Get the book →What is your team putting up with that you don’t know about yet?
Every team develops workarounds, tolerates friction, and quietly adapts around things that aren’t working. People don’t always raise those issues in the moment, especially when they’re small, repetitive, or easy to dismiss. By the time they show up as complaints, conflict, or turnover, you’re dealing with the consequence instead of the cause.
Stop, Start, Keep, Tweak gives your team a regular way to surface what they’re experiencing while there’s still time to respond. It also brings forward the practices, habits, and decisions that are helping the team succeed so you know what to protect.
That gives you a clearer picture of what’s creating friction, what people need more of, what’s already working, and where a small adjustment could make the work noticeably better.
The goal is to build a team where feedback doesn’t have to become urgent before it gets heard, and where people can see that speaking up leads to meaningful change.
Set one expectation clearly: the purpose of the session is to get a true picture of the team’s experience. There are no wrong answers, and responses can be anonymous.
Let people know their ideas should be clear enough for the facilitator to understand what they mean. There will be time to discuss the feedback, but not to solve every issue during the session.
If people expect feedback to be defended against, explained away, or forgotten, they’ll give you the safe version instead of the useful one. After teams have done this a few times and seen that honest feedback is handled well, you may find that people become more willing to own their comments.
Related idea: Sara Gallagher’s VES Framework includes a “Safe” filter focused on whether people can raise concerns and surface risks without feeling exposed.
Feedback is organized into four categories. Give everyone time to respond independently to each one.
STOP: What should we stop doing? What behaviors, processes, meetings, or habits are slowing us down or creating friction?
START: What should we start doing? What’s missing that would improve clarity, performance, or morale?
KEEP: What’s working well that we should protect and reinforce?
TWEAK: What’s mostly working but needs an adjustment in tone, timing, or execution?
Give each category real attention. Keep is just as important as Stop. You need to know what the team values before you accidentally change something that’s working.
Group similar ideas together and look for themes. Then talk through what the team is seeing.
Ask clarifying questions when the meaning isn’t clear, but resist the urge to explain why something happened or defend the decision behind it. Right now, your job is to understand the team’s experience.
Ask: What is this feedback telling us about how the team is actually working?
Hold solutioning until you’ve seen the full picture. Solving the first interesting issue can consume the conversation before you discover the patterns that matter more.
Once the team has reviewed the feedback, give each participant five votes to use across the Stop, Start, and Tweak themes. They can put more than one vote on an issue they feel strongly about. There’s no need to vote on Keep because those are things the team already wants to protect.
The votes show you what carries the most weight with the team. They’re input, not the final decision. A popular idea still has to make sense for the team and the organization.
Consider the impact of the issue, how often it occurs, and what could improve if it changes.
The goal isn’t to act on everything. It’s to identify the few changes that could make the biggest difference to how the team works.
Every cycle teaches the team whether speaking up is worth it. Tell people what you heard, what you’re going to act on, and what isn’t changing right now.
Choose at least one meaningful action people can see. Assign an owner or a small working group when follow-through requires more than one person, and make sure the team hears what happens next.
Visible follow-through makes the next conversation more honest. Asking for feedback and then letting it disappear teaches people to stop giving it.
The core technique stays the same — but how you apply it shifts depending on your role, your team, and your environment.
Your job is to keep the room moving while making sure everyone has a way into the conversation. Give quieter voices space to contribute, ask for clarification when an idea is unclear, and keep the group from jumping into solutions before the full picture is visible.
Watch for one person dominating the discussion or the group explaining away feedback before it’s been understood.
<em>The facilitator’s job is to help the team surface, understand, and prioritize what needs attention.</em>
For more detailed guidance on timing, setup, materials, voting, and facilitation, download the PowerPlay PDF
Use a shared digital board so everyone can contribute independently before discussion begins. If the team can’t meet live for the full session, collect responses asynchronously and use the live time for grouping themes, discussion, and prioritization.
<em>Before moving on, ask directly whether anything important is missing. You won’t always get the same read of the room virtually.</em>
If people have given feedback before and nothing happened, expect the first session to be cautious. Don’t push for more honesty than the team is ready to give.
Take what they offer seriously, act visibly on something meaningful, and reference that follow-through the next time you run the play.
<em>Trust in the process is built through what happens after the session, not through how strongly you ask people to be candid.</em>
Watch your footing
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PowerPlays are the techniques Bill teaches in his keynotes, workshops, and executive coaching engagements with organizations across the country.
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