After Action Review Framework
As shown in the figure below, AAR comprises three stages.
Stage 1 - Individual Reflections
The individuals directly involved in a given activity are asked to think of these four questions:
- What were you trying to do?
- What actually happened?
- What did you like?
- What would you do differently?
This helps the individuals to frame their thoughts without any external influence.
Stage 2 - Group Insights
This is where all the participants and stakeholders of an activity collectively discuss the lessons learned, and frame ideas for improvement and change going forward.
Stage 3 - Recommend Improvements
From the lessons learned and ideas for the future, the whole group or an assigned subset would make a formal report and recommendation for change. This can sometimes take more time, because in some cases a feasibility study may have to be done before recommendation.
This is generally where the AAR Process...
