Team Reflection Exercise: Start, Stop, Keep

This is one of our favorite, easy to implement team activities that can be done with your team at pretty much any time and any place. It can be a good mid-year talk about how things are going and what can improve. It also can be a great end of the school year debrief discussion, with some reflection on what God has done over the year and some ideas for what the team can change for the next year. Here are some tips for trying out “Start-Stop-Keep” with your team. 

Purpose: To increase team members’ level of ownership in the ministry by engaging everyone in a discussion about how to improve the overall effectiveness of your club ministry

Materials: 

  • Pens or pencils for every participant
  • Several pads of green, yellow and pink (a red shade) sticky notes
  • Copies of the Start-Stop-Keep Handouts for every participant

WHO: As many of your club volunteers that you can get together 

WHERE: Anywhere that you can meet in person and talk. A quick meeting after club one day, or after church can be times that everyone is already gathered together. 

WHEN: Anytime during or at the end of the school year. Meet for at least 20-30 minutes. This can be extended over a longer period of time, but you can keep it short too. 

WHAT: During your meeting, give everyone a pen or pencil and colored sticky notes. Without talking, have everyone write on the notes and place them with the corresponding colors (everyone’s combined together) on a table, wall, or floor space. 

  • GREEN – What is something we should START doing?
  • YELLOW – What  are we doing that we should we KEEP doing? 
  • RED – What is something that we might consider STOPPING? 

After your time is up for writing, discuss what was written and unpack what the feedback might mean for your club. 

You may use the following handout as a debriefing tool for your team members (the file includes tips for leading a discussion with your team). It can also be used in place of sticky notes if you don’t have them available. 

Click here for the “Start-Stop-Keep” Reflection Handout

WHY: You will gain valuable insight into how your team can function even better together and deepen your impact on kids!

Bonus tip: This exercise can be adapted to do with kids in your small group to get some honest feedback about their experience and what can be better.