An After-action Report (AAR) is a structured debriefing to analyze what happened during a process and identify areas of improvement for continuous learning. Used extensively in the military, an AAR is a great tool for an organization to evaluate an event. An AAR helps teams understand what went well and to note any improvements needed. The goal is to understand what actually happened; find the truth without fixing blame.
Similar to a retrospective conducted after an Agile sprint, the AAR should be conducted immediately after an event. It should focuson on understanding performance, rather than fault finding. It is recommended to be facilitated. Everyone who participated in the event should attend an AAR. The meeting should be an open climate where everyone can speak freely without the fear of reprimand. In addition, results should be recorded and stored in a shared repository for ongoing learnings and improvements.
The main purpose of an AAR is to learn from the experience, identify areas where things went well and note areas of improvement. An AAR should never focus on pointing fingers; the main purpsoe is to learn, improve, and iterate. A great tool to structure an AAR is the Six Thinking Hats. Using the Six Thinking Hats, a team can conduct an AAR in a short amount of time, keeping the discussion focused. Several key questions should be addressed during an AAR:
What was the intent of the event?
What happened?
What worked?
What could have been more effective?
What did we learn?
It is important to share the lessons learned with other departments and investigate where else in the organization to apply the learnings. Create a learning and problem-solving culture that tolerates failure, and identify mistakes or errors to understand and improve, not to blame.