Improve Faster with an Effective After Action Feedback Process

The popular saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Few people choose to take the insane approach to working. Most want to work efficiently and effectively. To accomplish this, we learn from experience, from others, and from our mistakes. Conducting an After Action Review (AAP) is one of the best ways to ensure you are growing as a leader, learning new approaches, and improving your efficiency along the way.

The AAR was adopted from the military process of quickly learning from soldier’s experiences on the battlefield. Using this approach allowed for critical lessons and knowledge transfer to occur rapidly to inform future strategy and tactics.

When you complete any project, large or small, it is a good practice to make time to ensure you capture the events and outcomes of the activity related to the project. It can be formal or informal, and completed as an individual as well as with the team. From a leadership perspective, there is tremendous value in always setting aside time for you to complete this for yourself, even if there is a team activity as well.

Core components of the after action review

Perhaps the most important element in any AAR is to avoid making it a session that would create animosity, shame, or blame. That is NOT the purpose of this activity. That applies to completing this for yourself or as a team. Do not go through this activity and question everything you did or beat yourself up. This is a learning experience and meant to be developmental.

There are four core elements for every AAR. Keep this as simple as possible, yet capture as much actionable information as part of the exercise.

- Purpose and Context

- Overview of Activity and Outcomes

- Evaluation

- Next Time

Purpose and Context

With any AAR, you will need to understand what was the purpose of the project. Ensure you have captured the context surrounding the activities, so you have a frame of reference in the future about what was happening, why this project was important, and what outside (or even internal) factors may have been influencing the project.

Overview of Activity

There are three pieces to this portion of the process. The first connects closely to the purpose. Ask, “What was supposed to happen?” What were the defined objectives? What were you seeking to accomplish? Was that well articulated?

Next, “What actually happened?” Capture in detail what the actions looked like, and what they resulted in. Match the outcomes to the original stated project objective to understand the differences.

Finally, use that to investigate “why the gap” occurred. Again avoiding blame or second-guessing, define what caused the outcome to be different from what you had hoped to achieve. By the way, the gap may work to your favor. The results could be better than expected. That is equally important to capture and learn from as understanding any short falls.

Evaluation

This will sound and seem familiar, but don’t let that fool you into the importance and depth you need to explore these. As part of any AAR, you need to dive deep into what worked well and what didn’t work well. Be honest. Whether doing this individually or as a team, the value of this exercise rests squarely on the factual elements of the evaluation and feedback. There can be no sugar coating, glossing over, or pulling punches. Feedback should be direct, respectful, and shared with the purpose of support, not blame or accusation.

You need to understand the WHY behind the items captured for both what worked well and what did not. Just capturing a list of good and bad things adds little value. It is the thought process, and execution that lead to those things that are most critical to capture and learn from.

Next time

This is the outcome of your learnings and the entire reason for completing this exercise. What did you learn, so it can be used to improve for the same or similar projects or activities in the future? “What would you do differently next time” is the underlying question to be addressed here, along with how.

There would be one additional step, especially in the team activity — SHARE. This information is most valuable when everyone knows the full story, and especially the steps for future success. This allows the AAR to become a multiplier of support and learning, and not just an individual or small team benefit. Imagine how much learning and information would be available to you if you began completing AARs for regular projects. The library of potential improvements would quickly grow to be a great source of opportunity for productivity and effectiveness enhancements.

How can you incorporate the after action review into your routines, for yourself and your team?

If you’re interested in a thorough, in-depth overview and process for your After Action Review, I would recommend reviewing the Guide to the After Action Review. This will give you an excellent look at the value of this process, and provide a step-by-step process to complete your own after action review process.

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