Create agility, accountability and improvement

After Action Reviews (AAR) and the complete Action Review Cycle (ARC)

As every organization has its own culture (and differs from that of the Army), adaptations are necessary. Signet has adapted and streamlined the method, now called the "Action Review Cycle" (ARC), so that it is effective in civilian settings. The great strength of an ARC discipline is that it is simple, focused, scaleable, and can be used in any situation where there is a recurring work process or challenge.

In outline form, ARC consists of establishing a clear “leader’s intent” (situation, task, purpose, end-state, guidance) to inform planning. Plan in hand, a Before Action Review (BAR) efficiently verifies alignment on the intent and plan, anticipates challenges, and establishes an agile stance for execution. Following the action (or periodically throughout it), AARs dig into gaps between intended and actual results in order to identify causes - and commit to key “sustains” and “improves” for the next period of action. This cycle fuels learning and accountability by testing plans, assumptions and execution against actual results.

...it's startling how little of the army's integrated approach to learning has carried over to the business world. Perhaps as the army's experience becomes more visible, the benefits of an integrated approach will be clearer, and more organizations will begin to follow this example.

How Signet became the leading source of expertise on the AAR

In the late 90's, Signet researchers extensively investigated the 20 year evolution of the method and compared it to early attempts to replicate it in civilian environments. We published a detailed study of the evolution of the AAR, "From Post Mortem to Living Practice." The key finding: Most early adopters (1980 - 2000) fell far short of the impact and value potentially available. Why? They focused entirely on the AAR meeting, treating it as a "best practice". They missed seeing the pivotal role that key leader behaviors play. More importantly, they missed the fact that it is in fact a cycle.

In a Harvard Business Review issue on The High Performance Organization, we described our exciting discoveries about the AAR practices of the U.S. Army’s OPFOR. (The Opposing Force is what Army units must face in battle at the Army's National Training Center). HBR’s Executive Editor described the OPFOR as very likely “the world’s premiere learning organization”. You can purchase a copy of this HBR article, Learning In The Thick Of It on the HBR site, or see their executive summary. We also provide a number of related publications on this site for further reading.

As Marilyn Darling and Charles Parry show, the crucial difference lies in the synergy between culture and method.

Though most organizations recognize the ever-increasing pervasiveness of change, relatively few have grasped the opportunity available in fully embracing change. The OPFOR is an organization that made this leap and, in the crucible of literally thousands of battles, worked out the implications in how they lead, learn and execute. This organization built a capacity to create and sustain competitive advantage in the face of rapidly changing conditions. The result is two decades of a truly amazing track record of OPFOR humbling world-class competitors who would love nothing better than to decisively crush them.

ARC's success in the corporate world

Signet has succeeded in distilling and formalizing the essential elements and sequences neccesary to efficiently apply this cycle in civilian settings—validated by working with a broad range of organizations apply ARC to business mandates. For example:

• Build an executive team’s capacity in mergers and acquisitions
• Improve budget and schedule performance on large projects
• Raise the bar in operations against key performance metrics
• Streamline costly and complex processes such as maintenance outages
• Get Lessons Learned to stick
• Prepare effective emergency response to likely scenarios
• Create conditions that unleash workforce buy-in to continuous improvement

While many have written about the AAR, no other authors uncovered the dynamics of the process as have Marilyn Darling and Charles Parry. Those of us who see the value of the AAR will well appreciate their contribution to the field of learning.

One example of Signet's work in translation and streamlining is the Before Action Review, or BAR. To provide a practical discipline that bridges some of the Army’s somewhat complex or military-specific methods that fill out their AAR cycle over to the time-limited business context, Signet developed the Before Action Review. The BAR builds the habit of briefly pausing to synchronize intent and plan before going into action. Together, the BAR and AAR then “book-end” units of action, assuring clarity, alignment, accountability and learning. And this sets an upward spiraling of effectiveness in motion.

In situations where adaptability and resiliency is required within a complex project, we show teams how to use a version of the Army’s habit of conducting walkthrough rehearsals as part of due diligence. “Rehearsals” and BAR's, unlike traditional closed-door scenario planning sessions, are close to the action and immediately help build a strong “line of sight” — and thereby ownership for results.

You can build an AAR culture

Signet has lots of practical experience in showing leaders how to simultaneously address their business situation and build learning into the organization’s way of working.

Please see our fact sheet for more information about how we transfer the skills of the ARC. To help organizations use the Action Review Cycle to shape the conditions for agility, accountability and continuous improvement, Signet provides a complete package of services (assessment, facilitation, training and leader support).

Note: For senior executives, it is sometimes possible to Signet to host short intensive immersion experiences at elite Army sites. This allows executives to see first-hand how the AAR discipline transforms the effectiveness of ordinary people into an extraordinary force, what it looks like when leadership,learning and execution are completely integrated, and then explore how they can translate a set of these practices into their own organization.

To further explore the possibilities for your organization with a Signet partner, or if you have any questions about AAR/ARC, please contact us using this link.