It’s that simple. Just take a few minutes to debrief with yourself and you can generate powerful insights for growth.
There are all sorts of times when you might want to do a group debrief. You may want to debrief with your key team members after a big client engagement. Or maybe you’re reviewing how a particular system is working in your company — for instance, how, operationally, a system influences the way that you produce your core product offering.
You can ask your team what they liked best — what’s really working. And then you can ask what they’d like to do differently next time, perhaps to produce more efficiently or deliver more consistent quality.
When you’re debriefing with a group, really push people to generate as large a list as possible. Get as many ideas up on the board as you can.
I also recommend that you focus on one column at a time. First list out all of your Liked Bests, then all of your Next Times. This will help the group stay focused and maximize the productivity of the exercise.
Debriefing One-on-One
You can also use this tool when you’re working one-on-one with a key team member.
For instance, let’s imagine that you have a direct report named Natalie who’s in charge of all of the receivables in your company. You can sit down with her for a check-in and ask what she likes best about the current process that she’s using to collect receivables. Then ask her what one or two things could change to make the process even more efficient and effective.
Now, if instead of debriefing Natalie, you were coaching her, then the conversation would be reversed. You’d be sharing your Liked Bests and Next Times.
In that coaching scenario, it’s important to limit the number of Next Times that you share. You can list as many Liked Bests as you can think of — those will make Natalie feel great about her work — but, when it comes to Next Times, you want to restrict yourself to no more than three items. And if you’re meeting with her especially frequently — say, bi-weekly — you might even want to keep that list down to just one Next Time that she can actually put into effect before your next meeting.
Remember, one Next Time that actually gets implemented is infinitely more valuable than a hundred Next Times that don’t get implemented. Really long lists of Next Times tend to do more harm than good: they’re overwhelming, they create a sense of failure, and they’re difficult to implement.
Now That You’ve Got The Tool, Use It
This tool is at once incredibly powerful and incredibly easy to use. It helps you generate feedback and maximize your learning whether you’re working in a group, one-to-one, or on your own.
All you have to do now is take a look at the week ahead and identify a moment when you can take this new tool out for a spin.