Lessons will be repeated until they are learned.
The best businesses don’t just reflect on the past—they use a deliberate system to capture those learnings and implement them.
The After Action Review (AAR) is a tool developed by the U.S. military to debrief and learn from past missions, successful or failed.
In my opinion, a project isn’t over until you conduct an AAR. Otherwise you risk letting valuable lessons go to waste.
You can also do AARs for yourself.
For example, I’ll conduct an AAR at the end of a difficult week.
Not only does this help me capture important lessons, but it reminds me of what I did well that week.
After any project, event, sprint, or quarter, answer the following questions with your team: