How To Conduct An After Action Review

Failure is inevitable. Projects fall apart. Clients leave. Sometimes circumstances outside of the team’s control doom them to failure. But every failure creates an option. Teams can take the loss at face value. Or learn from it and get better.

Reflection on failure can be a powerful growth tool for individuals and teams. In one study, having participants spend just 15 minutes a day reflecting on their work increased performance by 20 percent compared to just spending the same 15 minutes working. And for teams, the benefits compound.

So, in this episode, we’ll explore how to reflect and learn from failure by outlining how to conduct an after action review with your team. This review should generally happen at the end of a project or a pivotal milestone. And generally, it centers around five key questions that get discussed as a team.

0:00 Introduction
1:26 What was our intended result?
2:30 What was the actual result?
3:24 Why were they different?
5:05 What will we do the same next time?
5:58 What will we do differently next time?
6:52 Conclusion

For each of these questions, answers need to be documented and saved so that they can be reviewed at the start of new projects. Otherwise, people begin to forget the lessons learned and drift back to the old ways of working. But the purpose of an after action review is to change those old ways of working. Because the old ways of working don’t bring a team any closer to doing its best work ever.

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One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David Burkus’ forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are helping leaders and teams do their best work ever.

He is the best-selling author of four books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USAToday, Fast Company, the Financial Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS This Morning. Since 2017, Burkus has been ranked as one of the world’s top business thought leaders by Thinkers50. As a sought-after international speaker, his TED Talk has been viewed over 2 million times. He’s worked with leaders from organizations across all industries including Google, Stryker, Fidelity, Viacom, and even the US Naval Academy.

A former business school professor, Burkus holds a master’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of Oklahoma, and a doctorate in strategic leadership from Regent University.

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"Appreciate That" by David Cutter https://www.davidcuttermusic.com