Is there a template for After Action Review process? Any insight you can share?
Anonymous
Recently, there was a quality deviation with no business impact identified. Hence, AAR is being planned to understand the process break and what needs to be refined. Apart from root cause analysis, is there anything to keep in mind? How can I encourage the session to be focused on improving the process, minimize any blame games but keep an open conversation? Any pointers? Saving Changes...
At the beginning of the session, you could facilitate the development of some working agreements/ground rules for the participants to reduce the risk of the concerns you have being realized. Consider using a couple of different approaches (e.g. 5 Whys, brainstorming with a fishbone diagram, value stream mapping) to identify and narrow down potential causes.
Kiron touched on probably the 3 most common root cause approaches, but be aware that not all will fit every situation and you may find that you need to switch if one isn't working, or adapt them to your situation. For example, a communication breakdown may occur at several points, and the 5-whys becomes repetitive, so you might need to switch to a time phased examination like a value stream map where you identify the problems at different process steps.
Avoiding the blame game really is the hardest part in my experience, and it can really test your emotional intelligence. People can get very defensive and fight against accepting responsibility, which means they can't fix a problem if they have no ownership of it.
You really need to be explicit about the right behaviors, and then model them yourself rather than being another person poking at others. Explain that the goal is solutions, not just finding fault. You need to understand the problems before you can fix them. Referee the discussion. If it gets personal, you need to steer the conversation towards the process instead of the people.
Take responsibility yourself to model the behavior. For example if your root cause process has issues, be up front about it and take ownership of a better process. Use the word We instead of You such as, "So *we* didn't do such a great job here." Sure you were not part of the root cause, but you are part of the solution team so share the responsibility with the team and focus on a better future state. Saving Changes...
