I like the Kansas City Chiefs. I’m from Missouri. Many of my cousins live in Kansas City. I predicted that the Chiefs would win the Super Bowl. I was wrong! Wildly wrong: Kansas City Chiefs 9 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31.
The question is why? What can I learn by doing an after action review?
Individuals and teams that practice regular and disciplined after action reviews get better. Better at making decisions, generating strategy, placing bets.
This year’s Super Bowl gives you and your team a perfect case study for understanding how to get better results in the year ahead.
Start by analyzing Tampa Bay’s win.
Ask each person on your team to write in percentages their assessment of what led to the Buccaneers’ victory. If you’re conducting the meeting online, have each person put their answer into chat. This avoids information cascades or groupthink. After each person has reported their percentages, they should get a chance to briefly give their rationale. Then discuss as a group. See if you can find patterns of success.
What percentage of the outcome resulted from your strategic thinking — good, bad, absent? What percentage of the outcome resulted from your execution — strong or weak? What percentage of the outcome resulted from luck — headwinds or tailwinds?
Outcome = Success:
Strategy ___%
Execution ___%
Luck ___%
After the team has done the exercise for Tampa Bay, have them repeat the exercise for the Kansas City Chiefs. This time they are learning how to analyze a loss.
Outcome = Failure to meet expectations:
Strategy ___%
Execution ___%
Luck ___%
After your team learns the process by analyzing two Super Bowl outcomes, do the same thing with decisions within your organization.
Start with a decision you made that everyone considers a success. Then go on to a decision you made that everyone agrees failed to hit expectations. Note: the reason to start with yourself—or, if you have permission, a decision of the highest ranking member of your group—is to free up others to voluntarily analyze decisions that they made or championed.
Making after action reviews a habit will improve your decision making skills.
Individuals and teams that practice regular, disciplined after action reviews get better. Better at:
- making decisions
- generating strategy
- placing bets.
Look back on every decision. Analyze every bet after the fact.
The product of a strategist is a prediction; a decision about the most probable way to win.
The question is why? What can I learn by doing an after action review?
Individuals and teams that practice regular and disciplined after action reviews get better. Better at making decisions, generating strategy, placing bets.
This year’s Super Bowl gives you and your team a perfect case study for understanding how to get better results in the year ahead.
Start by analyzing Tampa Bay’s win.
Ask each person on your team to write in percentages their assessment of what led to the Buccaneers’ victory. If you’re conducting the meeting online, have each person put their answer into chat. This avoids information cascades or groupthink. After each person has reported their percentages, they should get a chance to briefly give their rationale. Then discuss as a group. See if you can find patterns of success.
What percentage of the outcome resulted from your strategic thinking — good, bad, absent? What percentage of the outcome resulted from your execution — strong or weak? What percentage of the outcome resulted from luck — headwinds or tailwinds?
Outcome = Success:
Strategy ___%
Execution ___%
Luck ___%
After the team has done the exercise for Tampa Bay, have them repeat the exercise for the Kansas City Chiefs. This time they are learning how to analyze a loss.
Outcome = Failure to meet expectations:
Strategy ___%
Execution ___%
Luck ___%
After your team learns the process by analyzing two Super Bowl outcomes, do the same thing with decisions within your organization.
Start with a decision you made that everyone considers a success. Then go on to a decision you made that everyone agrees failed to hit expectations. Note: the reason to start with yourself—or, if you have permission, a decision of the highest ranking member of your group—is to free up others to voluntarily analyze decisions that they made or championed.
Making after action reviews a habit will improve your decision making skills.
Individuals and teams that practice regular, disciplined after action reviews get better. Better at:
- making decisions
- generating strategy
- placing bets.
Look back on every decision. Analyze every bet after the fact.
The product of a strategist is a prediction; a decision about the most probable way to win.