# The Not-Anymore List — Facilitator Guide

> Folder: `the-not-anymore-list` · Category: reviews · 4–12 people · 25 min · offline + online · print props · tool pack
> License: CC BY 4.0

A 25-minute, 4–12 person review pointed at subtraction. Teams accumulate work that stopped earning its keep — the meeting nobody needs, the report nobody reads, the process that's now just ceremony. This review names what to stop and actually stops one thing, with a trigger for bringing it back so stopping is safe.

## Objectives

By the end of the activity, participants will have:

1. Laid every piece of recurring work on the table and run each through one brutal test: "if we weren't already doing this, would we start it today?"
2. Actually stopped one thing this week — or trial-stopped it — with a bring-back trigger, a named owner and a review date.
3. Named what the freed capacity is for, so the stop doesn't quietly reverse itself.

## When to use this activity

- The team is always short of time, yet nobody reviews whether the standing work still earns its keep.
- A process grew up around some launch or crisis that has long since passed.
- You have 4–12 people who run recurring work together and 25 minutes — and you want the meeting to end with something actually gone.

## Why subtraction beats addition

Most retrospectives add. Adding costs attention nobody can spare; stopping is cheaper to decide and it's the fastest capacity a team can free. One genuinely stopped thing beats ten improvement ideas posted and kept — and the "would we start it today?" test is fair enough that nobody can hide behind "we've always done it".

## Setup

**Space:** one shared board with two columns — **On the list · What we'll stop**. Online, the same two columns live on a shared board.

**Materials per person:** sticky notes and a pen — one recurring thing per note.

**Materials for the room:** the card faces from `the-not-anymore-list-prop-cards.pdf` — an "it costs us" card, a "nobody needs it because" card, a "kill it / trial-stop" card, a "we'll bring it back if" card, an owner-and-date card, a blank.

**Grouping:** 4–12 people who run the recurring work together — meetings, reports, rituals, approvals. It also works solo on one calendar.

**Roles:** everyone writes and tests; you hold the subtraction-only rule, push every trigger toward something observable, and keep the decision to one thing.

**Optional:** put `the-not-anymore-list-activity-poster.pdf` on the wall so the two rules — "subtraction only" and "every stop needs a bring-back trigger" — stay visible. No projector, no account, no online form.

## How to run it

| Time | Phase | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5 | List it | Write every recurring thing the team does — meetings, reports, reviews, approvals, rituals. One per note. No filtering yet. |
| 5–11 | The test | For each, ask "if we weren't already doing this, would we start it today?" Mark the ones that fail. That's the not-anymore list. |
| 11–17 | Pick one | Choose ONE thing to stop this week — or to trial-stop for a set period if the room is nervous. Not five. One. |
| 17–25 | Make it safe | Agree the "we'll bring it back if…" trigger, an owner, and a review date. Say what you'll do with the freed time — or it silently comes back. |

## The card

The stopped item lives on the "kill it / trial-stop" card; under it, the "we'll bring it back if" card carries the observable trigger, and the owner-and-date card makes the stop real. The "it costs us" and "nobody needs it because" cards are what you write during the test — a stop with neither is just a mood.

## Failure modes

- **Nobody wants to let go.** Make it a trial-stop with a date. Pausing something is far easier than killing it, and the pause usually reveals it was never needed.
- **The list is all other teams' processes.** You can only stop what you own. Reframe to what this team can unilaterally drop, and hand the rest over as a named request.
- **The bring-back trigger is vague.** Push until it's observable — a count, a signal, a date. A fuzzy trigger means the thing comes back by default.

## Variations

- **Zombie-meeting audit:** run it only on recurring meetings; cancel each one that fails the test for a month and see who notices.
- **Post-launch:** point it at the process that got you across the line — most of it shouldn't survive the launch.
- **Personal:** one person runs it on their own calendar; the same test is just as brutal.

## Facilitation notes

- Name the freed capacity out loud before you close — unclaimed time fills itself straight back in.
- If the room hesitates between two candidates, pick the one whose absence nobody can point to in the last month.

## Put it on the wall

Print `the-not-anymore-list-activity-poster.pdf` (A3) to hold the test question, the stopped item and the bring-back trigger on one wall while you run it.

## Props in this folder

- `the-not-anymore-list-prop-cards.pdf` — poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides): "it costs us", "nobody needs it because", "kill it / trial-stop", "we'll bring it back if", owner-and-date cards, blanks, branded backs
- `the-not-anymore-list-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this run sheet + the debrief, bound as one A4 document with bookmarks (`-Letter.pdf` is US Letter)
- `the-not-anymore-list-activity-poster.pdf` — the whole review on one A3 wall sheet
- `the-not-anymore-list-guide.md` · `-debrief.md` · `-start-here.md` — the facilitator guide, the debrief, the one-page start here
- `the-not-anymore-list-license.md` — what you may do, how to rebrand, what shipped when
- `SKILL.md` · `the-not-anymore-list.zip` — the machine-readable manifest, and the whole folder in one download

## Agent version

Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the cards, the debrief and this run sheet with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`). The paper version needs nothing but sticky notes, two columns and a pen each.