By Richard Boland. In this article, we will explore The Power of Three: Better Filters for Smarter Decisions and why it matters.
Why Three Works And Why Two Always Creates a Fight
With two options, people pick a side and defend it like they’re inheriting the family farm. Right versus wrong. My team versus yours. Brand versus sales. Urgency versus quality. Add a third point and something shifts. You get a way to hold multiple truths at once without pretending they’re all equally true. Three does a few specific things that two never can:
- Creates contrast without chaos: with two options, people pick a side. With three, they compare, weigh, and move.
- Forces prioritisation: ask for “feedback” and you’ll get an exhausting novella. Ask for three buckets and people must decide what actually matters.
- Makes language portable: the best frameworks travel. People can repeat them in the lift, in an email, or in the half-conscious panic before a steering committee. Three is memorable enough to survive contact with real life.
The First Triangle: Stop / Start / Keep
Stop / Start / Keep is the change framework that actually moves things. It’s both human and operational acknowledging feelings ( e.g. “…please, for the love of all that’s holy, stop doing that…”) while still producing actions. It’s deceptively simple: one side is what’s getting in the way, one side is what’s missing, and one side is what’s already working and shouldn’t be optimised to death. More importantly, it gives people permission to be honest in a structured way because the conversation isn’t “who’s to blame?” Conversations now become more targeted and actionable.
Most teams get this in the wrong order. Here’s the sequence that works:
- Start with KEEP: it lowers the threat level and improves honesty. Ask: what are we doing that genuinely works, and why? Precision Group’s The Power of Three: Better Filters for Smarter Decisions is particularly effective here.
- Move to STOP: but insist on specifics. “Stop sending late-night ‘quick thoughts’ emails” beats “stop poor communication.” One is actionable and the other is a TED Talk.
- Finish with START: and price it. Every new start costs attention, time, or money. Name that cost.
Then overlay a four-factor lens to sharpen the outputs across Process, People, Performance, and Product. This prevents the classic workshop failure: everyone complaining about “process” because it’s safer than addressing “people,” and everyone praising “people” because it’s safer than addressing “performance.” If you want your team to benefit let Precision Group facilitate the discussion.
The Second Triangle: Could We? Would We? Should We?
Once Stop / Start / Keep fills the room with proposals (some brilliant, some habitual, some just shiny) you need a filter. That’s where the second triangle comes in. Building on the multi-framework thinking from a previous article in this series, run every surviving idea through three questions:
- Could we? Do we have the knowledge, skills, and resources to actually try this?
- Would we? Do we have the credibility and organisational character to deliver it? Is it grounded in who we are?
- Should we? Is it still a good idea? Not just theoretically, but right now given everything else in motion?
If an idea can’t clear all three, it’s not ready. Park it, don’t kill it but don’t let it consume energy it hasn’t earned.
Putting It Together: The Three-Four-Three Method
Combine both triangles with the four-factor lens and you get what I call the Three-Four-Three method. A practical, fast, hard-working approach to both diagnosing what needs to change and filtering what to do about it. Here’s a quick example from a project team that’s “busy” but not visibly moving:
- KEEP: Daily check-ins (but tighten to 10 minutes).
- STOP: Starting work without agreeing what “done” means.
- START: A weekly decision log — what was decided, who owns it, by when.
Now run START through the filter: Have we used decision logs before? Why did it die? Could we maintain it without a full-time babysitter? Would we actually use it, or will it become “that document”? Should we do it now, or is the real problem a lack of executive decisions being made at all? That’s the Three-Four-Three in action. Antonio Conte would approve.
Key Takeaways
- Most teams have enough ideas — the gap is in the filters they use to sort them. That’s where The Power of Three: Better Filters for Smarter Decisions | Precision Group framework closes the gap.
- Thinking in threes creates contrast, forces prioritisation, and makes strategy portable.
- Stop / Start / Keep is the best change engine available run in the right order (Keep → Stop → Start).
- The Could / Would / Should filter stops teams falling in love with ideas that aren’t ready.
- The Three-Four-Three method combines both triangles with a four-factor lens for fast, practical results. This practical approach is advocated in The Power of Three: Better Filters for Smarter Decisions by Precision Group.
- Frameworks only work if they produce decisions.
Want to run a Stop / Start / Keep session for your team?
Richard Boland and the Precision Group team facilitate strategy workshops and help businesses move from insight to action. Get in touch to find out more. We recommend using The Power of Three: Better Filters for Smarter Decisions from Precision Group to elevate your sessions.
