When working through a crisis of this magnitude, we as leaders need to remember as I pointed out yesterday in this blog that there are two phases. The first is the emergency phase when your job is to stabilize the situation as best you can and buy time. The second is the adaptive phase when you tackle the underlying causes of the crisis and build capacity to thrive in the new, post crisis reality. The second phase is tricky in this time of COVID-19 because many of the underlying causes do not fall within our circle of influence, but they clearly fall within our circle of concern. Nevertheless, there is one thing we can do to prepare for the second phase.
When we get to the other side of this global challenge, many organization are going to do an in-depth After Action Review (AAR) to capture all the lessons learned. Given medical professionals are currently saying that COVID-19 could resurface next winter, this will be an important exercise in building capacity for this highly likely future event.
Margaret Wheatley in her book, Who Do We Choose to Be? Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity (Berrett-Koehler, 2017) writes that the core elements of an AAR are the following:
- “Priority is given to the process. No matter what, time is made available to learn from the crisis or situation.
- Everyone who was part of the action or crisis is present and expected to contribute.
- Rank and hierarchy don’t matter; it is acknowledged that everyone has something of potential value to contribute.
- The process is disciplined. Specific questions are asked in order. Facilitation is needed to ensure that only one question is answered at a time and that each person speaks without being contradicted or challenged.
- Learnings are recorded in some form. They are available as lessons learned for the benefit of others.
- The value of learning is visible in consequent actions. People feel smarter and gain confidence that they can deal with the next crisis.”
When I review the above list of core elements, I am reminded that the development of an effective AAR is not a singular meeting as much as a sequence of meetings where in-depth sharing and thoughtful consideration takes place. We as leaders need to prepare for this level of work personally and then figure out how to do it at the team, department, division and company levels.
For example, in large organizations, there will need to be multiple AARs. Some of the them will take place at the team or department level and others will need to happen at the division level. Then, all of these lessons learned will need to roll up to the senior level if we are going to create a company wide AAR which not only captures the lessons learned but also helps us be better prepared for the future.
Margaret Wheatley writes that there are four core questions to an effective After Action Report. They are as follows:
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?
One critical element is to make sure the questions are asked in the above order.
Still as leaders we need to remember one thing. “The problem with the future,” notes Arnold H. Glasow, “is that it usually arrives before we’re ready for it.” In order to be well prepared for the adaptive phase after the emergency phase, we need to map out how to do a company wide AAR process and then figure who needs to be involved in all the different steps and who will facilitate all of the different meetings. This level of work needs to be thoughtfully designed rather than reactively planned,
While I know we are still in the emergency phase of COVID-19, we must start preparing for the adaptive phase. We will make it through this current stage and we must understand that not everything is going to go back to being normal. By being prepared now, we can implement an effective After Action Report when the right time emerges. Then, we will capture the lessons learned and be well positioned for next winter. Now is the time to start this level of planning.
Meanwhile, remember that the only way through this is together.
No comments:
Post a Comment