Stop - Review - Improve. Repeat

Life is busy.

We all do lots of things. Small tasks, bigger activities and major projects. We get them done and then move onto the next thing.

But what about getting better at what we do? Do we stop and take time every now and then to review what we have done and see if we can improve things?

The US Military are big advocates of this. 'After action reviews' started as informal reviews by small groups after they completed an action or activity. This developed into a formal process and is now embedded into their way of working. Businesses have also been using similar processes for many years and it is a powerful tool for driving change and improving effectiveness.

Business gurus Ron Baker and Ed Kless give a template for After Action Reviews (AARs) in their brilliant book about business best practice, 'Soul of Enterprise'.

Some principles are:

• The review should take place soon after an activity is complete (initially the US military would carry these out straight after an action, in situ)
• Key people involved should take part
• It shouldn't be a major exercise. 15 minutes is typical for a relatively small activity
• Start with the objectives. Why were we doing this?
• Let junior members of the team contribute first.
• Everything is 'on the table' and can be challenged
• Encourage people to prepare. Bring along 3 things that went well and 3 things which could have gone better. Think about why they went well or didn't
• Have someone to facilitate and take notes if possible
• About half of the meeting time should be about what will be done differently in future

An accountant's life is full of task, projects and deadlines. There is lots of scope for AARs to drive improvement.

We are currently close to the completion deadline for one of our biggest projects of the year - completing self assessment tax returns for over 300 clients. It's going reasonably well but we still have lots to do.

We already have our AAR scheduled for soon after the last tax return is filed

Within a couple of months the new tax year starts and the cycle continues. Hopefully our AAR will help us take the learnings from this year and make the process even better next time. We will certainly be trying to make that happen.

www.base52.co.uk