A4: Retrospectives and continuous improvement

Use when: After a milestone, an incident, or a cycle ends.

What was supposed to happen?
What actually happened?
Why was there a difference?
What should we sustain next time?
What should we change or improve next time?
What signals did we miss or discount, and why?
Where did we get lucky, and how do we make that repeatable (or unnecessary)?
What's the most valuable learning here, and how will we bake it into the process?
What's one experiment we'll run next cycle to reduce risk or increase speed?

The first five questions are the Army After Action Review. Run them in order.

U.S. Department of the Army 2021 (After Action Review); Klein 2007

The complete PDF covers 24 situations, 153 questions, and the four listening moves (reflect, summarize, validate, clarify). Download The Questions Leaders Ask field guide.

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