A core part of what we do as a business is to simplify tools and techniques so that people can get most of a tool’s benefit without all the usual overhead.  What we are sharing with you here is a simplified approach to the after action review.  We have also identified the few critical behaviours that you need to focus on during the review and have provided an explanation of why this approach aids learning.

The Approach
 
Tell the team that you want to set aside 5 to 10 minutes right after a meeting to hold an After Action Review.  Use the following set of questions to conduct the review;

What result did you expect?

• What went well?
• What didn’t go so well?
• What would you do differently next time?

The result question sets the context for answering the other questions.

The Leverage

As the person asking the questions you need to be sure not to over react to any of the responses you receive.   Take a minute before the review starts to think about one thing you want them to learn.  Having thought about a learning point you are ready to begin asking the questions.  Remember, once you ask a question shut up, listen and let them do the talking. 

Getting people to engage in acts of self reporting is a very powerful learning technique.  The "What didn’t go so well?" question contains the leverage.  Most of the time they will know what didn’t work and will have some idea of what they could have done differently.   Once they have found something that is worth improving you should conclude the meeting.  Don’t try to over reach by drilling into them with loads of additional questions.  By keeping the session brief and relaxed there is the potential for these reviews to become very reinforcing.

Why it creates learning

If you think about the interaction you will recognise that you didn’t have to point out what went wrong, they were able to figure it out themselves.  Research has shown that we are far more likely to do something we choose compared to something that is imposed upon us.  The things to do differently next time were chosen by them not you.

Make sure the review happens right after the event, this will capture the feedback while everyone’s memory is still fresh.  Holding the review creates the opportunity for learning but it is your behaviour of listening and not over reacting that ensures the learning occurs.

Give it a try and let us know how it went.

The plan represents the work you need to accomplish over a period of time.  A typical approach is to break the work down into a set of deliverables.^[1]  Count the number of deliverables you will have to produce by day, week or month.  Then put it on a graph and begin to track your progress.

A simple Plan vs. Actual graph is a great tool for focusing a team on what needs to get done.  It is easy to see what you intended to do and what you actually did.  Your ability to change your performance occurs at the rate of measurement;

• Monthly and you have to wait months to see the change
• Weekly and you have to wait weeks to see the change
• Daily and you will only need days to see the change

Think about it from an improvement opportunity perspective.  Monthly means you have 12 opportunities a year to make adjustments using data, weekly – 52 times a year, and daily 260 times a year.

If you are the leader then your job is to create the environment for the team to deliver the plan.  If the team isn’t delivering then they should be coming to you asking for things such as;

• More time
• More money or people
• or they can’t recover

If this isn’t happening then you haven’t created an environment where they can give you bad news.^[2]

A mentor of mine, Charlie Remsen, always said; "Begin with the end in mind."  Set out with a plan of what you need to deliver, measure your progress, adjust as necessary and chances are you deliver more that if you hadn’t tracked your progress.

Template for Plan vs. Actual Graph
 

1. ↑1 A deliverable is just like it sounds, something that you "deliver" to someone else.  These deliverables should make sense for the context of your business.   For example drawings, approvals, assessments or other such things.
2. ↑2 If you don’t take bad news well then you won’t get any.