Showing posts with label After Action Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label After Action Reviews. Show all posts

Monday, 22 December 2008

LtF Chapter 14 - Review of the book

This chapter offers a quick summary of how the book was written and what the authors learned in the process.

Time similarly for a review of this blogging exercise.

Firstly - in purely practical terms - it took a little longer to get through the book than originally planned. Two chapters a week was fine until I had a health blip and a bit of leave. I found it very hard to regain momentum after this. I think the longer time frame made it harder to "read" the text as a whole and the later chapters were less well considered and connected than the earlier ones. Certainly a quick look shows I had less to say as the exercise went on.

I found the process of writing the entries not too onerous and helpful in terms of ordering my thoughts. I plan to go back and consider if any of the ideas I came up with at the time merit further investigation.

Overall the book was very helpful. I have often found KM too nebulous a concept or one that seemed rather faddish in use. The examples in the text and in particular the tools and techniques presented make this an altogether more concrete under taking.

I had some very interesting discussions with colleagues inspired by things I had read - all be it that these rarely happened on the blog. Perhaps the commenting facilities in blogger are too clumsy? I also had the pleasure of being contacted by both the authors and various members of the community of interest around the book.

I also identified a whole stack of other things I might like to read (though this is nothing new).

I am not sure if this is a method I will reuse often but I can definitely see me doing it again on occasion. I plan to continue to use this blog for KM related thinking.

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

LtF Chapter 8 - Learning Whilst Doing


Half term week makes for rapid and quiet bus rides - ideal for zipping through this brief chapter detailing the use of After Action Reviews.

These were developed by the US army during the war in Vietnam as a rapid means to learn in the field. (The image on this page is from the US Military Flickr account and is of an AAR taking place in Iraq). The full details of how these are operated in the army are published online "A Leader's Guide to After Action Reviews".

It boils down to four questions:
  • What was supposed to happen?
  • What actually happened?
  • Why were there differences?
  • What can we learn from that?
It is a quick process - around twenty minutes and to be carried out in the immediate aftermath of whatever you are examining. Most of the documenting is of the actions.

I like these a lot and I am certainly going to try and make use of them within my working life.

I wonder to what extent this sort of practice is formalised in processes around care? It should be happening around adverse incidents and near misses but what about in the everyday? Organisationally we are working on the Productive Ward model. Having a quick scan of the documents there are loops for learning but I wonder if it might benefit from the rapid feedback that an AAR would bring?

(C) Image Creative Commons

Tuesday, 21 October 2008

LtF Chapter 5 - Getting started - just do it!

Back from leave and taking the plunge straight into Chapter 5 which looks nice and short.


First suggestion - start where the business is. I have this very much in mind as I am speaking at the launch of the Alignment Toolkit tomorrow afternoon. This is an initiative aimed at demonstrating how knowledge services align with, and impact on, NHS priorities. I am looking forward to hearing about examples of being 'where the business is' and am sure there will be some great ideas to follow up.

First reflection point - What do you need to learn? I am struggling to know where to start with this. I can think of many things I could do with learning. Off the top of my head - why do some people use our services a lot and others in similar roles not at all? I have to run a workshop for my Directorate on organisational learning early next year and this would certainly make a good question for debate.

Slightly frustrating to find the book again looking ahead a few chapters discussing a tool we are yet to learn much about (After Action Reviews).

Next reflection point - what is the best environment in your organisation for Knowledge Sharing? I am fairly sure that technology is not going to be the solution on this one. We have a number of technological means of knowledge sharing already in place and these definitely don't reach all parts. The idea of a physical, visual presence is appealing. It would definitely have to be addressed through teams. A case by case approach would be required. The book suggests Knowledge Managers need to be communicators and I would heartily agree with that.

This ends the first section of the book and we move into tools and techniques with Chapter 6.