Crisis Management After Action Reviews Types

Crisis Management After Action Reviews Types

In a world that is constantly moving on from one crisis to another, organizations should assess their responses to said crises to determine if their actions taken were the optimal strategies, tactics, tasks with the appropriate timing for the objectives that the crises required. No matter how successful a business' response to a crisis, it's leaders must understand that they can always do better.
Reviewing responder perceptions along with response records can assist in the institution's resiliency, recovery, and sustainability as well as support organizational learning. So called "After Action Reviews" (AAR) allow leaders to identify and prioritize response criteria for improvement. AAR can utilize two kinds of assessments — one concurrent review during the crisis and one retrospective review of the incident management process as a whole:

1. The Concurrent After Action Review
   A prolonged crisis requires that incident managers set operational periods; sometimes as short as 12-24 hours in length. The concurrent review evaluates current goals, objectives, strategy, tactics, and tasks to assure that the management of the crisis is on track. At this point, in-flight adjustments may allow for making real-time improvements in the response.
2. The Retrospective After Action Review
   After the (final) resolution of the crisis, all involved actors should participate in the retrospective review. An objective and blame-free processing of what went right and those things that can be improved is critical to assure that an optimal cataloging of organizational lessons-learned is assembled to assure the next response is more effective, efficient, and reliable than the one just experienced.
   The post-incident assessment should evaluate the actions of the incident management team's command staff, planning staff, logistics staff, operational staff, and finance & administrative staff. Areas to be considered are decision-making, communications, pre-crisis mutual aid agreements, use of an incident management system, operational risk management, conflict resolution, public and stakeholder information dissemination, etc.

In reviewing the efficacy of the organization's resources, administrative policies and operational procedures, one can determine how well they achieved the management of the objectives the crisis presented. Between these two reviews, prospective and prescriptive, policies, procedures, and protocols can be developed or improved to effect a more reliable response to impending crises.

⇨ Please share your observations and experiences in applying After Action Reviews for crisis management below. We are all learners.

		Comments Sort by date Sort by rating Rating
		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Organizational Learning from a Crisis Thanks Michael for sharing these 2 types of After Action Review. Because markets and other circumsta... Sign up

		0 Alejandro Centeno Jeronimo Project Manager, Mexico
	Crisis Management After Action Reviews Types This sounds to me like Lessons Learned. In the automotive industry.... Sign up

		0 Michael Norris Director, United States
	Please Continue! @Alejandro Centeno Jeronimo: You sure have piqued my interests. Thanks for your contribution. Could ... Sign up

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Concurrent Reviewing Means Monitoring while Retrospective Means Reviewing don't They? I'm confused by these terms. Referents, from my dictionaries, for "concurrent" are to do with "at t... Sign up

		0 Alejandro Centeno Jeronimo Project Manager, Mexico
	After Action Reviews Types in PMBOK @Michael Norris: Every project is an opportunity to gain new experiences. These experiences provide ... Sign up

		2 Janice Johnson-Lorde Lecturer, Trinidad and Tobago
	The Value of Taking a Lessons Learnt Approach This approach certainly makes sense. After all, experience is the best teacher, so it should inform ... Sign up

		1 Michael Norris Director, United States
	Experience - the Best Teacher @Janice Johnson-Lorde: Thank you for participating! Experience is a great teacher. However, it can s... Sign up