In my post Greatest Evaluation Ever I mentioned that we did After Action Reviews (AAR) on each session, each day and the overall event. We also use evaluations from our participants from each and every breakout and keynote to help the presenters improve, as well as to help us craft and create a better even each and every time we hold one. One of our five Core Values at Solution Tree is ‘dedication to quality’, and one of our four Guiding Principals is that ‘we are a continuous learning organization’. We work SO hard to live up to our Mission-Vision-Values-Goals, and these are maybe two of the most critical.
An AAR is a fantastic way to look back at any activity, preform an assessment and improve upon it the next time around. Here are what I consider the five critical step in anyone’s AAR. You can make it more complex, but you can’t make it any simpler.
- Describe the experience you’d like to improve and learn from.
- What worked?
- What didn’t work?
- If you could do this experience over-knowing what you know now-what would you do differently?
- What action steps and systems must you implement to create the experience you want next time.
Just this week I was told by an educator, whom I can’t name because I do not have permission, that their district is only allowed to go to Solution Tree events. Reason being is that great content, high quality experience and implementable walk-away action steps are guaranteed, and Solution Tree events are the best in the business. Now this person may be blowing smoke…but it sounded right to me!
As for AARs, they are not for everyone…just those who want to get better and better and better and better! That’s why we do it.