At the end of a project, it’s often helpful to conduct a review. The KISS technique is a simple and effective project review resource that can be used individually or collectively to improve the group dynamic, set out an action plan, make decisions, prioritise actions.
Drawing on past experiences to plan for the future, the KISS tool provides a means of stepping back and objectively and constructively analysing the following:
the content of a project
the process
the team dynamic
what actions could be improved, abandoned or introduced.
Once the focus of the project review has been established, invite the participants to spend a few minutes reflecting individually and writing down their ideas onto the Post-it notes provided.
So that it’s easier to sort the ideas afterwards, ask them to respect your chosen colour code for the four categories. E.g.: “We communicate via 3 social networks: LinkedIn, Twitter and TikTok”. If the participant feels any of these should be kept, they write it on a “Keep” Post-it note.
Sorting into common themes
One at a time, the participants stick their Post-it notes onto the template displayed on the wall (either printed out or drawn out in advance).
You can help the group stay on track by refocusing their attention whenever they start to digress or a debate starts to erupt.
Debrief
Together, the group identifies points of convergence and divergence.
You can now initiate discussions and deliberations, guiding the participants towards an action plan. In this action plan, they must determine “who does what”, “when” and “how”, in relation to the decisions and actions that have arisen from the exercise.
