How does an After Action Review work in my personal life?
Posted on May 17, 2021 by Medha Johnson, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
What is an After-action review and how do you use it to create powerful change in your life?
What’s an after-action review you may ask? If you work in a corporate setting, or have taken an agile class, or even participated in formal leadership training they all talk about the magic of a “debrief”, “retrospective”, or, “post mortem”. They all mean the same thing. Taking a distanced and objective look at what did and did not go well with a project and creating a list of “whys” for improving the next time. There is actually a great deal of value in this exercise, but how many of us do it with our personal life?
There are four fairly simple steps that all of these labels apply, they are:
What just happened?
Why do I think it happened?
What can I learn from this?
How will I apply what I learned?
The words vary from method to method, but essentially we get to the same questions.
As your virtual coach today, I am inviting you into this process. When you have taken a significant action, I choose significant because it doesn’t have to seem big to others, it has to be important to you and only to you. Creating success going forward comes from truly learning how you created success in the past. By applying these questions to your choices, you begin to understand what does and does not work for you. I also encourage you to write out your answers so you have the tools to begin to recognize patterns. If you have a trusted partner, someone who had experience with your significant experience, invite them into the process and capture their impressions in your writing.
To assist, let me define the list just a bit for you, again, these are just example words, use what makes sense to you.
What just happened? This should be your and others if you can gain it personal perspective. No right or wrong, just a reflection on the event or experience.
Why do I think it happened? Here is where you get to interpret what you experienced. In all of the steps, this is the one where other inputs can be invaluable if you can seek them. It’s important here to be brutally honest with yourself, this is for you, so no sugar coating, hiding, or pretending something did or did not happen.
What can I learn from this? This is the opportunity to capture both aspects of what to do more of and what to do less of. Again, don’t hold back, write everything you can think of, the gold often comes at the end of the list, not the beginning.
How will I apply this learning? This is where you really get to own your power to grow. By being open and willing to learn from all experiences, you get more information on how to choose when future opportunities occur. You get the chance to create your own success because you are beginning to know yourself.
So my virtual client, your assignment for action and reflection before our next meeting in two weeks is to think of a recent action or event and do your After Action Review. Then, let’s talk about what you learned about yourself. I’m so curious to see where this takes you on your journey!
