Before Action Reviews (BARs) and After Action Reviews (AARs)

Introduction

Randall Smith from PowerLabs introduces two useful tools to help with planning and reflections in your campaigns – Before Action Reviews (BARs) and After Action Reviews (AARs).

Before Action Reviews (BARs) and After Action Reviews (AARs)

After Action Reviews (AARs) is a process developed by the US military to involve every soldier in learning and improving their unit. The AAR method goes deeper than pluses and deltas with four simple (and powerful) questions.

  1. What is our intended result?
  2. What were our actual results?
  3. What caused our results?
  4. What lessons should we take forward for next time?

The process should be run at the end of the project for sure. But it’s even more effective when it’s run during a project when course corrections are still possible.

Research has found that teams are inclined to assess their strategy at the calendar midpoint of a project, making it a natural time to run an AAR.

If conditions are changing quickly, AARs can be run on a daily or weekly cadence. For example, I worked with an organization running a deep canvas pilot where the team needed to learn fast enough to achieve the program’s objectives. Instead of waiting to till the project mid-point, they held daily and weekly AARs.

The Before Action Review is the other side of the pair. It can be held at the beginning of a project, at each new phase of a project and after an AAR. The four questions are:

  1. What is our intended result?
  2. What are our success measures?
  3. What challenges will we face?
  4. What did we learn from last time?
  5. What do we think will make us successful this time?

When we choose to set aside time for reflection, we’re creating the conditions for people to develop their:

  • Knowledge – Information or understanding gained from experience or education
  • Skills – The ability to do something that comes from training, experience, or practice
  • Wisdom – The ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.

Download Resource

Get detailed instructions on running Before Action and After Reviews on pages 5 – 9 – Building a Learning Practice, Rethink Health, 2018.

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