After Action Review (AAR), also known as a debriefing or post-mortem, leads the team through a series of four questions that allow the team members to reflect on their work together. AARs provide an opportunity to systematically analyze one’s own and other team members’ behavior and to be able to evaluate the contribution of their behavior to the team’s performance.
When?
At the midpoint and at the end of your process
Why?
To evaluate your performance and reflect on what you did well and how you can improve the process next time.
How long?
15-60 minutes as a team (Be sure to leave at least 15-30 minutes for a midway AAR – even a brief 15-minute conversation can help your team identify roadblocks and strategies to overcome them. For a formal project-end AAR, try to allow for 45-60 minutes – this might even include some celebration!)
Although originating with the US military (and still used today), AARs are a practice that have been adopted across all types of organizations.
The evidence is compelling that taking this time after a team has completed a task significantly influences future effectiveness.
What to Do:
This template will help you and your team conduct an AAR. Before you begin, consider the roles team members can take to facilitate this process and the ground rules you want to establish for a productive conversation.
ROLES
You might consider assigning roles to facilitate the process:
- Note taker: Assign a team member to take notes. If the AAR is an hour or longer, consider having team members rotate this job so everyone can participate fully.
- Timekeeper: Assign times to the sections of the AAR in advance and ask someone to play the role of timekeeper. This is important – it is easy for groups to get lost in conversation and not have time to cover all sections of the template.
RULES
Consider ground rules that you might establish for the AAR (and perhaps most team meetings) such as:
- It is important for everyone to participate
- Everyone’s views have equal value
- No blame
- There are no right or wrong answers
- Be open to new ideas
- Be creative in proposing solutions to barriers
- “Yes….and” rather than “either/or” thinking
- Consensus where possible, clarification where not
DISCUSS
Use the template from above to work through four questions:
1. What did we expect to happen?
2. What actually happened?
3. What went well? Why?
4. What can be improved? How?