Sherpa Alliance

Agility requires constant organizational learning and institutionalizing those lessons learned, so that history has less chance of repeating itself, even if it is well disguised.  Any time history remotely repeats itself, that is wheelspin by definition, which could have been avoided if we had more traction on continuous improvement and institutionalizing lessons learned.  The nameless, rankless debrief can help you.

In his year 2000 book, "Business is Combat", James Murphy puts it this way:

"The debrief is the bookend to the preflight mission brief, and it’s just as serious as its mate.  Its not about demeaning or brow-beating people.  Its purpose is to deconstruct, analyze, talk about and view the mission which just transpired, and to identify the mistakes that were made along the way.  Because of this, we always have a debrief after every mission.  Every pilot who took part in the mission is in attendance - and attendance is mandatory.  The debrief is the place where everybody’s hitches are hauled out in front of everybody else, where we find out why the mistakes happened and what’s going to be done to prevent the same mistake from happening in the future.  Let me repeat - we throw our mistakes right out in the open, talk about them, discuss ways to prevent them from happening again, then get on with it.  The debrief is about ongoing improvement."

How rigorously do you have a debrief, after every mission, with attendance being mandatory?  With the uncertainty, turbulence and volatility of business these days, every day is a mission!  That’s what the Morning Meetings are about - debriefing yesterday’s mission and pre-briefing todays mission (Week 12 Tip:  Holding a Morning Meeting - just do it!).  Indeed, James Murphy goes on to talk about defining mission cycles:

"The brief-execute-debrief sequence centers on a definable mission.  You say that you don’t have definable missions like we do in the sky?  Of course you do, but they’re not always so obvious.  The first step in defining the mssion cycle is to find a pattern of business that you want to isolate as a mission.  Certainly it’s a matter of choice, but any valid such choice will have some underlying logic to it.  Becuase hotels an inns usually serve traffic on a weekly basis, it might make most sense for them  to brief and debrief on a weekly mission cycle.  On the other hand, weekends are terribly important in the restaurant business.  A brief on Friday morning with a debrief on Sunday night would both prepare the teams for the heavy weekend traffic and include a planned debrief while the team is fresh and the mistakes are vivid."

Of course, in business we operate within various interconnected mission cycles, simultaneously - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually.  For effective debriefing, James Murphy lays out the ground rules:

• Rankless, Nameless.  There is no rank and no naming of names in the debriefing room.
  • When you walk into a debrief, everyone elaves rank at the door.  For the duration, everyone is the same - there is no seniority; there are no Presidents or Vice-Presidents.  The only person with authority in the room is the flight lead.  He briefed the mission.  He debriefs the mission.  And he can be criticized too.
  • In a military debriefing, it is also a strict policy that no names are used; the whole idea of a debrief is to undertake a strict analysis of the execution of a mission, and getting personal tends to create barriers that can make it harder to learn from one’s mistakes.  It may seem less practical in a business environment, but you should try to find ways to get rid of names in your debriefing sessions as well.  By their very nature, names are about individuals.  Instead of that, we call each other by our tactical call signs.  It feels less personal, and that minimizes defensive behavior. 
•  No Fear of Reprimand.  Admit your mistakes right up front;  there is no fear of reprimand in the debrief.
  •  This is the only way to ensure everyone speaks fully and freely, without fear of repercussions.
  • Admitting ones mistakes is a surefire way to create a cohesive group; the ability to talk openly creates an indisputable feeling of camararderie, bonding the group together and engendering pride in one’s job.
• Mission Participants Only.  Remember this one last rule and never break it:  The debrief is a gathering of the mission participants only.
  • No sit-ins by others who were not involved should be allowed under any circumstances.  The very intimate nature of a debrief would be destroyed by the presence of a party who wasn’t there - an onlooker with no previous investment in the mission would only make the others feel judged and uncomfortable.  Never allow it to happen.  Even if its your CEO who wants to attend.

Think about how you can apply the princilples of Nameless, Rankless Debriefs in the endless and dynamic flow of mission cycles in business these days, for maximum learning and continuous improvement, including as part of your daily cycle (Week 12 Tip:  Holding a Morning Meeting - just do it!).  Your organizational agility depends upon it.