NİL MADİ| psikolog, uzman, eğitmen | A powerful technique for strong teams: Debriefing

December 23 2021

A powerful technique for strong teams: Debriefing

An important (perhaps the most important) and necessary skill for both today and the next 10 years is LEARNING HOW TO LEARN and MAKING LEARNING CONTINUOUS. Of course, we all have a role to play in business life. There is an additional task for leaders, and that is to CREATE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS.

You may have heard of Google's Aristotle Project. They conducted research based on the question "What are the secrets of successful teams?". As a result of more than 200 teams and one-on-one studies over 2 years, 5 factors emerged. One of these factors is IMPACT. It is related to the importance of the work employees do and their thoughts about whether it contributes to the institution, society or change.

In the institutions I consult for, the first issue that comes up during the problem identification process is usually COMMUNICATION. “There are communication problems in our team.” “We need to improve our communication skills.” I generally hear sentences like this. Communication skills come up in almost every training.

I am sharing a technique that serves LEARNING, IMPACT, and COMMUNICATION in the teams I mentioned above. It is a practice that increases interaction between teammates and encourages learning from our experiences, in other words, from the past.

Its effect increases when applied continuously.

Free and simple.

I learned it from my American colleague, an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist academic who studies this subject. He says it is the most powerful technique for team communication and teamwork.

The name of the technique: DEBRIEFING.

You may have heard of it. It's not like psychological debriefing, it's not trauma work. It was developed for soldiers and then put into practice in institutions.

We can translate it into Turkish as “learning from experience through questioning.”

The technique is very simple. You reflect on your recent experiences, focus on the questions “What went well? Where can improvements be made?”, talk as a team, reach an agreement, and get back to work.

It lasts between 15 minutes and 60 minutes. (I think it’s reasonable)

I tried it on a project team I managed a few years ago. I had debriefed a project we had failed on. The results were invaluable.

It can also be useful to do this technique after a team presentation or at the end of a team meeting. It can even be a starting point.  Asking the questions “What did we do in the presentation or meeting, what did we do well, what can we do differently next time?” and briefly discussing them. It only takes 5 minutes.

I also recommend a DECISION debriefing for senior leaders. It is important to discuss, or debrief, after a new decision.

<ul style="margin-left:40px">
 <li style="text-align:justify">What was the decision? (What led us to make this decision?)</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">How did we make the decision?   (Who was involved? How fast was our decision-making?)</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What did we do, what could we do? (What could have been a different perspective?)  </li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">How might the latest situation impact our future decisions? (What does the latest situation mean? What have we learned? What agreements have we signed, should we sign, will we sign?)</li>
</ul>

It doesn’t have to be a negative situation. Anything can happen. The legendary November campaign. The launch of a new product. A fair. A meeting. An agreement. Training. You name it. What you experienced.

Questions to ask:

<ul style="margin-left:40px">
 <li style="text-align:justify">What happened?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What we did?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What did we experience?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What went well?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What obstacles did we encounter?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What did we learn?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What did we discover?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">How were differences of opinion handled?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What can we do differently next time?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What helps us be more effective?</li>
 <li style="text-align:justify">What do we need?</li>
</ul>

Answers to these questions may take 5 to 20 minutes.

Note to team leader: After asking these questions, have everyone on the team share their observations. Write down all suggestions. Be sure to confirm what was said. MAKE SURE THE SAME THING IS UNDERSTOOD (if you don't, the debriefing is pointless). Finally, give a short summary and repeat the actions to be taken. A simple technique. The important thing is to continue and make it a part of the culture. I suggest you start trying. I am curious about your experiences and the effects. Knowledge increases as it is shared, right? I would be happy if you share: info@nilmadi.com