"Hindsight is 20/20."
Very few people take advantage of this wisdom in a systematic way. How often do we take the time to really debrief a meeting, event or project? Yet, so much of our work is cyclical: yearly fundraisers, quarterly workshops and weekly meetings.
This key management strategy of looking back to critique a completed event will save you time, effort and money on future projects; however, many times people simply don't do a debrief session with their team because they are already busy working on the next event.
The function of the meeting is to look for better ways of doing things by identifying mistakes and clarifying objectives. Two important outcomes of the debrief meeting are to (1) learn and hold onto what works and to (2) share and teach the best practices.
Address these 4 areas during your debrief session:
1. What worked especially well?
2. What did not work? What assumptions did we make? What lessons did we learn?
3. What were the big(gest) risks we took? Did we take enough risks? How could we better prepare for "surprise factor"?
4. If money, time and resources were not a factor, what would you do differently? What features, benefits or "goodies" would you add to the event? Describe in vivid detail this ideal scene in terms of wild success with flawless execution (ie if everything went perfectly according to your plan).
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"But who has TIME for this?!!!"
Stop
the cycle of repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Don't buy
into "crisis management." Most crises can be anticipated and avoided
with the right planning and attention.
If you're shaking your head and
saying, "No, we're always in crisis mode." then you need to implement
this immediately and build it into your culture. You don't have the
luxury of not requiring this essential aspect of project management.
By making the debrief
session part of the complete process, you add an effective planning
tool to your management ability and to your organization's future.
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