The After Action Review Process
Regular use of an After-Action Review will take your business to a whole new level.
Regular use of an After-Action Review will take your business to a whole new level.
An After-Action Review (AAR) is a simple yet powerful tool for organizations to debrief, identify and learn from both successes and failures. An AAR creates an opportunity to focus on team performance, highlighting areas of strength or concern in both your projects and in your team. An AAR is done by answering five basic questions about a project.
Organizations that build a culture of assessment and improvement in their everyday work have higher employee engagement, are more adaptive to change and overall more success in achieving their goals. AAR’s used regularly to assess successful projects, unsuccessful projects and events will strength teams and improve overall performance.
To get the best result from an AAR participation from everyone involved in the project is key. Leaders must create a space of transparency, openness, and trust where everyone feels comfortable to share honest feedback about the project including their own performance. It is best to have a designated ‘facilitator’ to run your After-Action Review meeting that is not the owner/boss/manager of the project.
Going through the steps of an AAR is relatively easy, simply download our guide The After-Action Review Process. The tricky part is engraining this process into the structure of your business. Regular use of the After-Action Review is what will take your business to a new level.
The best time to conduct an After-Action Review is immediately following a project completion. This is when the project is still fresh in everyone’s mind. Schedule the time and make it happen.
the quoting process we used. We had a lot of internal discussions about how we could make this area of the business better but felt like we were constantly spinning our wheels.
Going through the AAR process with Cathy facilitating quickly uncovered gaps and areas that were being missed. The changes made because of this have saved us SO MUCH time and money. A process that used to take me hours now takes me minutes."
