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“The Army’s After Action Review (AAR) is arguably one of the most successful organizational learning methods yet devised. Yet, most every corporate effort to graft this truly innovative practice into their culture has failed because, again and again, people reduce the living practice of AAR’s to a sterile technique.”
- Peter Senge as quoted in A Better Approach to After Action Reviews
Conducting After Action Reviews (AARs) is essential for promoting team learning. By thoroughly analyzing previous experiences, teams can gain valuable insights, pinpoint areas for enhancement, and boost overall performance. Embedding the AAR process seamlessly into everyday work routines, rather than treating it as a standalone activity, is a highly efficient and productive approach to fostering a culture of learning and innovation within the team and organization.
How AARs Drive Team Performance and Team Learning:
• Team Reflection: AARs facilitate the development of a shared understanding of events by encouraging open dialogue and perspective-sharing as the team collectively analyzes their experience and performance
• Strength Identification: Recognizing successful strategies helps teams replicate and build upon their strengths.
• Continuous Improvement: AARs create a cyclical process of execution, learning, adaptation, and growth.
• Knowledge Sharing: The open dialogue in AARs encourages team members to contribute their perspectives, knowledge, and insights, leading to collective growth.
• Skill Enhancement: Addressing challenges and coming up with creative, collective solutions develops interpersonal, creativity, and critical thinking skills, as well as problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
• Cultural Transformation: Regular AARs, even mini-AARs integrated into the flow of work, cultivate a learning-oriented and innovative team culture.
• By incorporating AARs into their routine, teams can transform challenges into opportunities for growth, ultimately driving organizational success.
Key Benefits of implementing After Action Reviews in the flow of work:
• Identify Strengths and Weaknesses: Uncover what worked well and areas for improvement.
• Create a Team Environment for Continuous Learning: Create a safe space for open communication and growth.
• Improve Decision Making: Analyze choices and refine decision-making processes.
• Enhance Teamwork: Build trust, rapport, and effective communication.
• Increase Efficiency and Effectiveness: Optimize processes and achieve better outcomes.
AARs transform experiences into valuable learning opportunities for the entire team, driving performance enhancement and organizational growth by integrating a team learning routine of plan, executing, learning, and applying that learning to future planning and actions. This creates positive and contagious energy from momentum as the team learns and improves its performance.
New Manager Training and Team Leadership Development
Our answer to the question “How to Train a New Manager?” is to upskill the new leader in Team Learning.
In our Team Learning course your managers and new leaders will learn:
Team Psychological Safety,
Collaboration.
Designing effective Team Learning Routines and spark innovation.
How to integrate Team Learning into the daily and weekly flow of work.
How to adapt team leadership styles for different teams and contexts.
How to increase and maintain team energy and team effectiveness for sustained, elevated performance.
Want to learn more about how you can integrate this powerful method of team learning into your everyday? Schedule a call today
Thriving Teams Institute is a learning institute and organizational development company that upskills leaders to lead their own team learning in the flow of work.
With deep experience in both research and practice, we have come to know that when teams learn together, they can thrive together. We help you utilize team learning to ensure every facet of an organization can learn and grow in ways that support their best work and improve organizational success.
Through team learning, we believe that organizations can create cultures that support innovation, better navigate the human elements of teaming, and build team capability to realize new levels of success.
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