Why after-action-reviews are critical conversations

In The Appreciative Leader handbook I discuss eight conversations that really count in performance leadership and ensuring both personal and business relationships are highly valuable and mutually rewarding.

A key characteristic to the success of these conversations is making sure that they are candid and convivial. 

This post focuses on After-Action-Reviews. 

After-Action-Reviews are just one of the conversations we can have that are far more valuable than feedback, which I think is valuable, yet the least most valuable of the eight conversations.

In a great book Who Do We Choose To Be? Margaret Wheatley suggest four great questions for After-Action-Reviews:

1) What just happened?

2) Why do you think it happened?

3) What can we learn from this?

4) How will we apply these learnings?

You can apply these questions to any actions. Try them. And please let me know how you get on.

Who will you become?

What will you do next?

Be remarkable.

Ian