After Action Reviews (AAR) Key Points

An After Action Review (AAR)…

Is a dynamic and honest discussion soon after an event

Requires active participation from everyone involved

Focuses on what happened during an event or project

Identifies what went well (strengths) as well as what didn’t go well (weaknesses) which will help you make recommendations for the future

The AAR is not…

An opportunity to complain

An opportunity to point fingers of blame

A full scale evaluation in itself - it is a tool that will help you identify lessons learned

An AAR is effective when…

Everyone involved has a say and is honest about their experiences

It is supported by managers and the results are shared and learned from

It is done straight after the event when everything is still fresh

Types of AARs

Formal

Informal

Personal

Formal AARs

Detailed exercise

Should look at a particular aspect of a project at the close down

Spend a half day or full day on it

Informal AARs

Simple

Can be used for most situations

It’s quick - you just need to take 10-30 minutes to ask the questions

Can be used for anything after a milestone or stage

Personal AARs

Just for you and your benefit

Personal reflection

Looks at your role and how you could do things differently

After Action Review Questions

AAR Question Further prompts

What was supposed to happen? What did we set out to do?

What were our objectives and deliverables? What actually happened? What did we actually achieve?

What went well?

What could have been done better?

Why were they different? Why did it happen like that?

What did we do?

What did we learn? What would we do differently next time?

What could be done better? Focus on improvement

How does this affect the next stage?

Who do we need to share our learning's with?