I never used to analyze the outcome of successful or unsuccessful decisions I took within my business.
I read two books this year that made me change this approach - David Goggins' You Can't Hurt Me and Jason Fox's Life Under Fire.
One of the key lessons I took from these Special Service operators is the concept of carrying out an After Action Report once a project, decision, or action has been completed.
What is an After Action Report (AAR)?
An AAR is a structured review process for analyzing:
- What happened;
- Why it happened; and
- How it can be done better next time.
The aim of an AAR is to help you or your team learn from the actions and decisions that were taken in order to avoid failure and promote success in the future.
An AAR provides clarity
The purpose of an AAR is to answer 5 key questions:
What was supposed to happen?
What was the reality?
What went well?
What did not go well?
What should be changed for next time?
Answering these questions provides clarity about the actions and decisions taken and how these contributed to the final result.
Carrying out an AAR leads to you or your team capturing the lessons learned from the actions and decisions taken.
Weekly and Project-based reviews
Since learning about AARs, I've implemented them in two ways:
Weekly AAR - I carry out a weekly AAR in my Bullet Journal. Every week I'll set out my 'Must' Deliverable Tasks and then review my execution at the end of the week, listing what worked, what didn't work and the lessons I learned.
New Projects - After completing every new project, whether that's finishing a course or taking action within my business, I'll carry out an AAR.
The insights I've gained and the learning I've experienced since doing have been transformational from spotting repeating patterns that don't serve me to identifying the one action that provided the greatest leverage during a project.
0
Thread