The Debrief is the most powerful tool you can bring to the business world. When you first start a company, your debriefs allow you to survive. As your market share expands, your debriefs help you hold on to your best practices. And when a competitor throws everything at you, the debrief gives you a mechanism for rapid response. That’s the power of the Debrief.
With all of this in mind, can you really afford to skip debriefing?
Unfortunately, only a small percentage of companies in corporate America have any system for looking back and evaluating execution errors and successes. Why? Because time is money, and in the world of billable hours, it’s onto the next project, the next week, the next month, or the next client. But the companies who do harness the power of the Debrief are the ones who leave the biggest mark.
“It’s not who’s right, it’s what’s right.”
The power of the Debrief is held in three main components:
- Truth
- Open Mind
- Open Communication
In order to have a truly effective Debrief, you need to leverage all three components. Think about it this way: if you were missing one of these three components, would you be able to hold a truly collaborative meeting that gives insight to all aspects of a mission?
Debriefing is done in a nameless, rankless environment, using a specific process called STEALTH, which forces your organization to freely admit and examine errors or acknowledge successes. It’s important that you do both during the Debrief. Businesses operate under what is going well and what it needs to change, and both are important to Flawless Execution. Besides, nobody likes ending on a negative note.
Can you imagine if Neil Armstrong came back from the moon and was never debriefed? If your employee visited a competitor’s site, and nobody ever talked to them about their findings? There is an enormous cache of valuable data, lessons learned, and a way to accelerate learning experiences ready to be discovered held in one, simple meeting. That’s the power of the Debrief.
If you’re not sure how to implement the power of the Debrief into your business, reach out to us here. Our consultants are experts at building cohesive teams, defeating groupthink, and developing competitive advantage – just what you need to kickstart your year the right way.
