---
id: "action-stop-start-continue"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ 3. They relentlessly focus on high-impact priorities."]
tags: ["prioritization", "focus"]
related: ["framework-priority-setting", "claim-focus-is-discipline"]
action: "Use stop/start/continue lists to limit active initiatives to 3-5 major priorities."
outcome: "Prevention of new opportunities diluting execution on core value-creation drivers."
sources: ["tail2"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail2"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-tail-121-best-pe-backed-ceos"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/04/what-the-best-private-equity-backed-ceos-do-differently"
sourceTitle: "What the Best Private Equity-Backed CEOs Do Differently"
---
# Implement Stop/Start/Continue Lists

**Action:** Limit active initiatives to **three to five major priorities.** Use visual tools — **dashboards** and **stop/start/continue lists** (see [[framework-priority-setting]]) — with the leadership team to regularly bucket initiatives.

Force **explicit tradeoffs** by deciding **what matters now, what comes next, and what must be removed from the list entirely** (or deferred to the next hold period). **Outcome:** prevention of new opportunities diluting execution on core value-creation drivers — the discipline asserted in [[claim-focus-is-discipline]] and warned about in [[quote-failure-to-focus]]. Mechanism for discipline #3 of [[framework-5x-ceo-disciplines]].