The After Action Review, Part 2 (#41)
Last night, I watched the movie Twelve O’Clock High, starring Gregory Peck. The movie focuses on the 918th Bomb Group, part of the US Army Air Forces’ Eighth Air Force in 1942 and 1943 as it did daylight bomb drops over Nazi Germany, while suffering tremendous losses. The movie profiles, compares, and contrasts the leadership of the unit’s two commanders — Colonel Keith Davenport and Brigadier General Frank Savage — as they both try to create an effective organization under enormous pressure. It’s a great movie and an excellent way to study leadership under pressure.
If you’ve seen the movie, one part you may have missed was the interrogation or debrief, a real event that happened after every mission in World War II. When the B-17 Flying Fortresses landed, aircrews were taken to a building, given food and coffee, and then seated at a table with a debriefing officer. The debriefing officer, using a preprinted Interrogation Form, thoroughly questioned the crew about what happened during the mission, what went right, and what needed to be done differently in the future. The debriefs were compiled and the lessons learned used to improved the effectiveness of the next bombing raid.
8th Air Force, 392d Bomber Group, Interrogation/Debrief, 1944
The US Army uses a similar tool called the After Action Review, or AAR, as a way to do performance feedback for units after training events and combat operations. And corporate groups have adopted it as well. I talked about the AAR in post 10 and as part of the Leader Decision Exercises (https://www.thefivecoatconsultinggroup.com/the-coronavirus-crisis/tactical-decision-exercises ), but I’m so convinced it is a great tool for your organization it is worth revisiting.
So when should you do an AAR as an organization? After every big event — a new product roll-out, a response to a pandemic, or poor crisis communications. Your organization needs five things before trying to do an AAR:
An hour to two hours of time when the group can gather
A facilitator (not the leader, but typically a senior person in the organization)
Data and facts about how the organization performed during the event
Motivated participants
A note taker
The facilitator will gather the group and use four questions to guide the AAR:
What was the plan? (Typically this question is posed to the leader who takes the team through the plan. This usually takes 5-10 minutes to talk through.)
What happened? (The facilitator tries to get as many participants to talk about what happened at their level. What did they see or do? What didn’t they do? Breaking the events down by day or week is helpful to energize the discussion. Once the entire event is discussed then move to the next two questions. This usually takes 15-20 minutes to talk through)
What is one thing I should sustain, in my role or at my level, the next time a crisis occurs? (Asked to every participant. The last two questions are the real secret to the power of the AAR. These two questions should take 20-30 minutes to talk through.)
What is one thing I should improve, in my role or at my level, the next time a crisis occurs? (Asked to every participant.)
After the AAR is complete, the note taker and facilitator should publish the notes. Future plans should be updated based on the results of the AAR.
Whether you call it an interrogation or debrief like the bomber pilots of World War II, or an After Action Review like the modern US Army, the goal is the same — get the people on the team to learn together what happened and to take accountability for what went right and what needs to be fixed the next time. Your small or medium sized business can benefit from you implementing the AAR as part of your normal operations.