I know that everyone is just getting adjusted to the social distancing, telework, and the new protocols of the coronavirus crisis. Although it may seem too soon, over the next two weeks take the opportunity to gather your team together, take stock of what happened, and learn together about what the team can do better next time. Doing group discovery learning, using the After Action Review, will help create more resiliency in your team for when the next crisis occurs, whether it is pandemic or a different crisis.

The US Army uses a 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. Humility and a willingness to take accountability for things that went well and that need to be improved are important to maximize the effectiveness of the AAR.

You need five things before trying to do an AAR:

• An hour to two hours of time when the group can gather, virtually, of course

• A facilitator (not the leader, but typically a senior person in the organization)

• Data and facts about how the organization performed during the crisis/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 pandemic plan prior to March 2020)

• What happened? (The facilitator tries to get as many participants to talk about what happened at their level during the crisis. What did they see or do? What didn’t they do? Breaking the crisis down by day or week is helpful to energize the discussion. Once the entire event is discussed then move to the next two questions.)

• What is one thing I should sustain, in my role or at my level, the next time a crisis occurs? 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 pandemic plans should be updated based on the results of the AAR.

Don’t just take my word for it about the power of the AAR — check out this article from HBR — https://hbr.org/2005/07/learning-in-the-thick-of-it

And here is an interview I did with the Hodge Group about using the AAR with non-profits — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bNAeCt5wGA