How To Turn Failure Into Innovation Using the AAR Process

Note to Reader: This article is from FUCKUp Nights. The organization specializes in learning from failure so others can learn from and not repeat mistakes.

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TIP: Review Module 5 Failure in the Practitioner Guide for additional material on Failure.

EXCERPT

According to data from our Failure Survey (2023), only 35.5% of employees typically communicate and report lessons learned from failure.

‍Two Key Elements for Sharing Learnings

Culture: There has to be a core belief of winning collectively. Even with the best resources for training and documentation, sharing won't occur without creating spaces that foster psychological safety and a mindset focused on continuous learning.

Workplaces must address mistakes with a sense of responsibility and commitment, focusing on solutions rather than imposing fear through sanctions.

Infrastructure: A culture geared toward sharing lessons learned won't be efficient without the right tools, channels, or processes to support it.

A great tool for evaluating a team's or project's performance after completion is the AAR process, which stands for After Action Review.

It's a structured way to reflect on what happened during the execution of a task or project—what went well, what didn't, and how future outcomes can be improved. It consists of four stages:

Design: Define the goal, particularly what you'd like to learn from the process. Identify stakeholders and anyone involved or who might benefit from the findings.

Preparation: Gather all necessary information and perspectives for your analysis. At this stage, you can reflect on other methods or meeting types that could help collect more data. For example, we’ve helped corporate partners interview their teams so they’re more open and comfortable than with their bosses or colleagues.

Implementation: Conduct the analysis and discussions. Bring the information to the table and execute the methods outlined in the previous stage. During this phase, ask the following questions:

• What was expected to happen? (project objectives)

• What actually happened? (actual outcomes)

• Why were there differences? (cause analysis)

• What can be learned from this? (lessons for future improvement)

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