One of the greatest forms of feedback is self-aware feedback. If you can identify a needed change in yourself and you can change it, you?ll be a step ahead of having to learn it from someone else. When someone comes to you about that feedback, you can confirm to them that you?re aware, and show them your game plan moving forward.
I don?t downplay the benefit of feedback from someone else. It?s valuable to me because there are often blind spots that I just don?t see, or things I don?t realize are creating an unintended impact, and I need someone to help me see those. Self-evaluation can move you and your department forward faster than any other means.
One of the ways I evaluate myself and my results is with ?Start, Stop, Keep?
Pick something that is working really well for your communications team: Your Social Media strategy, your website attracting new visitors, your print material mail outs or your in-house presentation on a weekend.
What could you START doing that would improve that result? It could be that you?re seeing good results on your Facebook page so you?re going to start assigning a budget there to boost posts, or that your in-house presentation is what people love about your church, so you?re going start talking about that more on Facebook?
What could you STOP doing that would improve that result? It could be that you?re going to stop putting a budget into billboards to free up more budget for social media ads. It could be you?re going to stop using certain words or verbiage during service to help people better understand what you?re communicating.
What could you KEEP doing? What is working that needs to keep happening, and while you explore ways to improve your results, this is one thing that needs to keep happening.
Consider your design this year. Make a pile and print out everything you designed this quarter. What will you start, stop and keep doing next quarter in your design?
Start, Stop, Keep works really well when you?re asking for feedback from others too. Instead of saying to your volunteer team. How can we improve as a team? You could say ?Everyone take a moment and write down 3 things: One idea you have that we could start doing as a team, one thing that we could stop doing and one thing that?s working and we can keep doing.? It gives a clear framework for ideas and sections of discussion for feedback.
So, what will you Start, Stop and Keep doing today, this week, this month or this year?
