In participatory learning, it is important that each learning activity is reported to give participants the opportunity to reflect on their experience and reinforce their learning.

It is equally important that those involved in a critical employment situation take the time to assess whether the actions taken were effective and, if not, what should be done differently in the future.

I always thought it made sense to report on a learning activity or management situation by asking these three questions:

1. What went well?

2. What did not go well and why not?

3. What did you learn?

I recently read about an approach the US Army is supposed to use called “After Action Review”. This Review also uses three questions for informational purposes, but the first two differ significantly from my questions:

1. What happened?

2. Why do you think it happened?

3. And what can we learn from it?

Upon reflection, I prefer these questions to my own for three main reasons.

First, my first two questions approach a situation from a black and white perspective. They require a judgment call: either things went well, or they didn’t.

Second, my questions do not delve into why things could have been fine. They just ask why things didn’t work out.

Third, my last question focuses on what the individual learned from the situation, rather than what anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation in the future should keep in mind.

The After Action Review questions generate a much more complete and rich narrative. The first question does not ask respondents to force aspects of a situation into good or bad boxes. When they answer “What happened?”, they have to describe the whole situation from a factual and objective point of view.

“Why do you think that happened?” it requires respondents to reflect on the situation as a whole, looking at causal relationships. The question cannot be adequately answered with a subjective answer. Instead, ask for an objective assessment of the situation.

“What can we learn from that?” it takes away the reflection of the impact on the individual. Instead, it extends learning to identify more universal truths that others can apply to similar circumstances.

Needless to say, I plan to use these “After Action Review” questions in my reporting activities in the future.

Are there other informative questions that you have found to work well?