An After-Action Review (AAR) is an effective tool for debriefing projects, programs, or other initiatives. It may also be considered similar to a Hot Wash, After-Action Debriefing, Look Back, Postmortem, or, in the Agile community, a Retrospective. Regardless of the name, the primary purpose of an AAR is for participants to reflect on what transpired, extract key lessons, and identify opportunities to enhance future performance.
Purpose of an After-Action Review Session
An After-Action Review is NOT intended to critique, grade success, or failure. Rather, it identifies weaknesses that need improvement and strengths that might be sustained.
An After-Action Review answers four “learning culture” questions:
- (Purpose) What was supposed to happen?
- (Results) What did happen?
- (Causes) What caused the difference?
- (Implications) What can we learn from this?
The After-Action Review provides a candid discussion of actual performance results compared to objectives. Hence, the engagement participants contribute their input and perspective. They provide their insight, observation, and questions that help reinforce strengths and identify and correct the deficiencies of the completed project or action.
Learning cultures highly value collaborative inquiry and reflection. Therefore, the U.S. Armed Forces use After-Action Reviews extensively, relying on a variety of means to collect hard, verifiable data to assess performance. The U.S. Army refers to the evidence as “ground truths.”
Participants identify mistakes they made as well as mistakes made by others. They prohibit any other use of candid discussions, including performance reviews.
Focus on WHAT can be learned, not WHO can be blamed.
The U.S. Army’s approach may use five basic guidelines that govern its After-Action Reviews, namely:
Guidelines for an After-Action Review Event, Meeting, or Workshop
- Call it as you see it
- Discover the “ground truth”
- No sugar coating
- No thin or thick skins
- Take thorough notes
After Action Review Focuses on Listening
After-action reviews emphasize openness, candor, and transparency. While complete candor can be difficult for many groups, it’s essential to encourage full disclosure during the process. Participants should identify their own mistakes and share constructive observations about others. It is crucial to make clear that the discussions are confidential and should not be used for purposes like performance evaluations.
An After-Action Review workshop can range from part of a day to a full week, depending on the scope of the initiative. It may involve twenty to thirty participants or more, though not everyone needs to be present simultaneously, allowing for flexible participation throughout the workshop.
Agenda for an After-Action Review Event, Meeting, or Workshop
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Introduction
Begin with the MGRUSH introduction and emphasize the project objectives and expected impact of the project on the organizational holarchy. Carefully articulate and codify key assumptions or constraints.
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Success Objectives
Results are compared to the SMART objectives. Items that worked or hampered provide input for later discussion. Be immediately cautious about scope creep. Questions that may be out-of-bounds at this time include why certain actions were taken, how stakeholders reacted, why adjustments were made (or not), what assumptions developed, and other questions that need to be managed later.
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Goals and Considerations
Compare the project results to the fuzzy goals and other considerations. Be cautious to avoid scope creep. Manage other questions later such as why certain actions were taken, how stakeholders reacted, why adjustments occurred (or not), and what assumptions developed.
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What Worked & Hampered
Results-focused discussion (or lack thereof) stimulates talk about options and conditions to leverage in future projects.
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- How stakeholders reacted
- What assumptions developed
- What worked and hampered
- Why certain actions took priority
- What adjustments worked (or not)
- Other questions as appropriate.
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Issues and Risks
Assess or build a risk management plan and other next steps or actions (e.g., Guardian of Change) based on actual results.
Use the four activities in the MGRUSH review and wrap-up
Special Ground Rules for an After-Action Review Event, Meeting, or Workshop
An AAR workshop can handle more than twenty people, with frequent use of break-out groups. Do not hesitate to partition the workshop so that participants may come and go as required. You may need to loop back, cover material built earlier, and clarify or add to it. Above all, the approach shifts the culture from one where blame is ascribed to one where learning is prized, yet team members willingly remain accountable.
Conduct After-Action Reviews consistently after all significant projects, programs, and initiatives. Therefore, do NOT isolate “failed” or “stressed” projects only. Additionally, ground rules and guidelines that have proven successful in the past include:
- Do NOT judge the success or failure of individuals (i.e.; judge performance, not the person)
- Encourage participants to raise any potentially important issues and lessons
- Focus on the objectives first
For learning organizations
For learning organizations, the following also supports cultural growth:
- Some of the most valuable learning derives from the most stressful situations
- Transform subjective comments and observations into objective learning by converting adjectives such as “quick” into SMART criteria (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Adjustable, Relevant, and Time-Based) such as “less than 30 seconds.”
- Use facilitators who understand the importance of neutrality and do not lecture or preach
- Teach the team to teach itself
Therefore, effective use of After-Action Reviews supports a mindset in organizations that are never satisfied with the status quo—where candid, honest, and open discussion evidences learning as part of the organizational culture. In conclusion, learning is everyone’s responsibility and it begins with hard data used to analyze actual results.
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Terrence Metz, MBA, CSM, CSPF, PSP01, HTTO1, is the Managing Director of MG RUSH Facilitation Leadership, Training, and Meeting Design, an acknowledged leader in structured facilitation training, and author of “Meetings That Get Results – A Facilitator’s Guide to Building Better Meetings.” His FAST Facilitation Best Practices blog features nearly 300 articles on facilitation skills and tools aimed at helping others lead meetings that produce clear and actionable results. His clients include Agilists, Scrum teams, program and project managers, senior officers, and the business analyst community among numerous private and public companies and global corporations. As an undergraduate of Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MBA graduate from NWU’s Kellogg School of Management, his professional experience has focused on process improvement and product development. He continually aspires to make it easier for others to succeed.
From: Jackie Is it possible you mean ‘no THIN skins’?
Hi Jackie,
Thank-you for your thoughtful observation. Oddly, we meant the thick skin as in someone impervious or resistant as opposed to someone thin-skinned and perhaps overly sensitive. We should have captured both, and have done so with our recent edit.