Have you ever wondered how you could get better and improve your business or company in a systematic way? We’ve created a series of questions that we call the After Action Review in order to do so. It’s really taken from the military and they use it on all their training and exercises but we’ve adopted it and use it after coaching, training sessions and also for different things that we are doing within our company. We have found it to be really valuable and it’s a way to improve every time you do something. There are a series of five questions that we ask which I wanted to share with you today so that you could use them as a tool to improve what you do as well.

The next time you do a presentation, hire your next team member, make a sales call, do an employee review or whatever it might be — ask yourself these questions afterwards and watch yourself get incrementally better and better at what you do.

After Action Review Questions

1. What went right?  Write down what went right on the project, process or event. Highlight and capture that.
2. What worked well?  Were there things that stood out to you or maybe you got feedback on? Note if there was something that got a great result.
3. What needs improving? These are things that you saw that could make it better or improve the process or experience. Is there something that needs to be changed in order to get a better result next time?
4. What did you learn? Is there something that you learned from this experience or from this process that you maybe didn’t know before that you need to remember?
5. What was the biggest take away (from this event, process, project)?

Once you take inventory like this, then you know next time you can create more value, solutions, and an even greater experience for you, your company, your customers and/or your employees.

It only takes a couple of minutes to answer these questions (or 5-10 minutes if you want to include team members’ answers too) while it is still fresh in your mind after an event. At the end of a project or event, it’s a great way to really analyze and evaluate what went right by going back and reviewing what happened. I think you will find that it will transform your business one step at a time. You can learn more about us at confidencecoach.org.