After Action Reviews. Seizing the chance to learn in the midst of complexity

The After Action Review (AAR) is a short, sharp process to improve an organisation ability to learn in the midst of action and improve team working and knowledge management. A single AAR can have significant but isolated impact but a culture of continuous AAR’s creates a learning organization.

In learning organizations where people are open, AARs are happening continuously. Organizations as a whole really don’t learn; but as individuals learn, as a result of going through the AAR process, the organization grows.

It originated in the US military but is widely used in domains as diverse as the UK NHS, many sports teams, and many other domains where continual learning is important.

An AAR is a professional discussion of an event, focused on performance standards, that enables participants to discover for themselves what happened, why it happened, and how to sustain strengths and improve on weaknesses.

It is a tool leaders and teams can use to get maximum benefit from every incident or project. Used widely, AARs allow the organisation to pass timely, relevant learning within and between teams at times when waiting for a full evaluation report would mean waiting too long.

It is a misconception that AARs should only be held at the end of a formal project or discrete piece of work. AARs are designed to aid team and individual learning during the work process and can be conducted after any identifiable event.

An event can be an entire small action, or a discrete part of a larger action, e.g. a shift handover, project planning meeting, key meeting or visit to the community.

Events suitable for AARs simply have a beginning and an end, an identifiable purpose and some metrics on which performance can be measured.

AARs use a simple format

AARs are a simple way for individuals and teams to learn immediately from both successes and failures. They have a simple and quick format.

Team learning, building trust and team integrity are equal objectives of the process. Simplicity of the process and low time requirements key to acceptance.

Key steps to facilitate an AAR

The standard AAR format

Simpler AAR formats

Other formats are useful, if the team is especially short on time, or are newly formed, or if there’s a need to explore particular aspects such as risk, leadership or reliability.

Something as simple as this can be invaluable as a learning process:

To summarize, reflection today can bring improvements and prevent failures tomorrow.

Tips:

Collinson, Chris and Parcell, Geoff. Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from some of the World’s Leading Learning Organisations

Kahneman, D., & Klein, G. Strategic decisions: When can you trust your gut.

US Forest Service Leadership Development Program

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