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| The After Action Review
(AAR)
I mentioned this in one of the other tips sections so I figured it was time to let you in on an extremely valuable tool to help your team be a real team. Its called the After Action Review. This is different from the After Action Report.. What's the difference? Well, that is pretty easy. The report is a written (normally) account of what happened on a mission written by the unit commander and forwarded up the chain. What we are talking about here is the After Action Review. It is a learning tool used by the units and teams to discuss what happened. So Lets start Your team has just completed a mission Or better yet, the mission was not so completed. In fact your team got its collective ass handed to it on a platter. It is time to assess what happened. Start with the basics. The team leader needs to sit everyone down and discuss what happened from his point of view. This is not a bitch session, this is going to be constructive. What was suppose to happen Talk about what was suppose to happen. Alpha team was suppose to do this, Bravo was suppose to do this, the team leader was suppose to know what was going on. That sort of thing. Talk about what actually happened. Alpha team did not get where they were suppose to be, bravo team moved too quick/slow. The team commander went the wrong way. Talk about what went right Alpha team, when they found they were in the wrong position adjusted and got to the correct place quickly. Communication was good. Not too many team members got taken out. Talk about what went wrong. Commo sucked, teams members guns broke down, Someone forgot to get air and paint before going on the mission. One of the leaders forgot to check that his team had air and paint. You get the idea Then talk about how to fix it. This is where everyone has a say. Not to say that the topics above are not open to everyone but don't let it get into a he did this and I did that stuff. Listen and enlist the team members to talk about what they think they could have done better. Or what the team needed to know first, needed the team leader to communicate to them, so the mission would have been better. Remember this is a team and AARs are a big part of team building. I team leader that cant look at the team's performance and specially his own performance objectively can not improve the outcome. They will do the same thing over and over again. AARs need to be done as soon as possible after any action. Take the time to do them. It really does not take long. Get the entire team involved. It helps individual players contribute to the team instead of the same ones all the time. It builds cohesion, and cohesion is the essence of the team.
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