# Start · Stop · Continue — Facilitator Run Sheet

> Folder: `start-stop-continue` · Category: reviews · one team of 4–8 · 30 min · offline + online · print props · assessment-type
> License: CC BY 4.0

The retrospective that fits in one wall: every card is exactly one verb — start something, stop something, keep something. The structure is small; the discipline is real: no card survives without an owner and a date.

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## Objectives

By the end of the activity, the team will have:

1. Seen its own working patterns <mark>sorted into three honest piles</mark>.
2. Turned the loudest pain into one action with one owner and one date.
3. Practiced the retro discipline: cards are behaviors, never people.

---

## Setup

**Space:** one wall or whiteboard; online, a shared board with three columns.

**Materials:**

| Item | Source |
|---|---|
| 1 × START card per person | `start-stop-continue-prop-cards.pdf` (card 1) |
| 1 × STOP card per person | `start-stop-continue-prop-cards.pdf` (card 2) |
| 1 × CONTINUE card per person | `start-stop-continue-prop-cards.pdf` (card 3) |
| 1 × timing card | `start-stop-continue-prop-cards.pdf` (card 4) — for you |

**The card rule — say it out loud:** "One behavior per card. Never a person's name. 'Stop cc-ing the whole team' — not 'stop cc-ing Dana'."

**Grouping rule:** one real team, 4–8 people, including its lead. Larger teams split into working pairs first, then merge boards.

---

## Minute-by-minute script

| Time | Phase | Facilitator does | Participants do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–3 | Frame + card rule | State the rule. Deal the three cards per person | Read cards, think |
| 3–11 | Silent writing (8 min) | No talking while writing — quality over speed | One behavior per card, all three verbs |
| 11–18 | The wall (7 min) | Invite reads; cluster duplicates live | Post cards, hear echoes, merge |
| 18–24 | Vote (6 min) | Three dots each: what matters most this cycle | Dot-vote across all piles |
| 24–30 | Owner + date (6 min) | "Top card per pile gets an owner and a date. Say them out loud." | Commit aloud; photograph the wall |

The wall photo and the three commitments are the retro's artifacts — see `start-stop-continue-debrief.md` for the 10-minute close.

---

## Known failure modes & rescues

1. **Cards arrive pre-blamed.** "Stop being late to standup" — aimed at one person everyone can name. Rescue: rewrite live, with the room's permission: "the behavior is arriving unprepared — stop that." Behaviors only, every time.
2. **Everything lands in CONTINUE.** Praise is safe; START and STOP stay empty. Rescue: cap CONTINUE at three cards per person before the wall goes up — scarcity moves honesty to the hard piles.
3. **The vote splits into camps.** Dots pile along team lines; the retro becomes a referendum. Rescue: silent dot-voting only, and re-cluster the top five into one shared shortlist before the owner round.

---

## Variations

- **Sprint-length version:** 20 minutes, one verb per person per sprint — rotate verbs weekly.
- **Remote:** shared board, cards as stickies, dot-vote with emoji, photo becomes an exported PNG.
- **Paired version:** for low-trust teams, write cards in pairs first — every card carries two names, which halves the exposure.

---

## Props in this folder

- `start-stop-continue-prop-cards.pdf` — poker print-ready: START / STOP / CONTINUE / timing cards
- `start-stop-continue-guide.md` — this run sheet
- `start-stop-continue-debrief.md` — 8 debrief questions, 3 failure modes
- `start-stop-continue-assessment.json` — pre/post measure preset
- `start-stop-continue-paper-form.pdf` — the A4 answer sheet: the measure as a print-and-fill form
- `start-stop-continue-workbook.pdf` — participant workbook: the idea in plain words, guided items, notes and action pages
- `start-stop-continue-slide-deck.pdf` — the slide deck for teaching or projecting
- `start-stop-continue-slide-deck.html` — the same deck for any browser, speaker notes on N
- `start-stop-continue-license.md` — what you may do with all of this, in plain language
- `start-stop-continue-activity-poster.pdf` — The whole activity on one wall (A3): meta, run of show, debrief questions, watch-outs.
- `start-stop-continue-start-here.md` — one page, thirty seconds, then print and go
- `SKILL.md` — machine-readable manifest for AI agents
- `start-stop-continue-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this run sheet + the debrief sheet, bound as one A4 PDF

## Agent version

Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the props, the debrief and this run sheet with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`). The retro itself runs on cards, a wall and one discipline: behaviors, never people.