Here’s the scenario: You’ve just finished a project. It was successful, but like most projects, mistakes and missteps occurred along the way. Unfortunately, some of the mistakes were not new – your people have made these same mistakes before. And, like before, these mistakes cost you time and money.

Here are three questions you can ask after a project that will focus on what’s working and minimize the likelihood of future mistakes (A hat tip here goes to the US Army, because these questions are derived from their common practice of an After Action Review):

1. What went well?
2. What didn’t go so well / what could’ve been better?
3. What can we do different next time to make it better?

Keep in mind that these questions are effective for more than just projects. Some managers I know ask these questions at the end of each work week. Retailers ask these questions after their busy season. Production departments ask these questions after change in procedure has been implemented. And so on.

Discussion around these questions should not descend into a critique, and it should not become a forum for personal attacks.

Instead, the focus of asking these questions should be to:

- Discover why things happened while avoiding judgment
- Identify specific tasks and goals accomplished
- Get all participants to speak freely and equally, despite their position

That last item is important. The more people you involve in the discussion, the better the coverage of the lessons to be learned. And the lowest-paid person in the company should have the exact same right to comment on the questions as anyone else, without fear of retribution.

Finally, and it should go without saying, but I better say it: To make the most of the answers you get and minimize mistakes down the road, you’ll need to take action on the issues that come up.

Do you ask these questions?  Comment below on what worked well, what didn’t, and what you might try differently.    !!!

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Filed in Work, Motivation, Management, Leadership, Workplace, Meetings, Corporate Culture