Avionics News July 2012 - 53

BUSINESS BASICS

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problems with this particular aircraft type, for example. Lastly, ask what is going to make the biggest difference in the team’s success. This “one thing” acts as a focusing question to address the complexities and snags of installing a moving map into an older aircraft, for example. It also allows the team leader a chance to gather feedback about how well he’s explained the project’s objectives, and staff doing the work can clear up any misconceptions. The after-action review, then, simply answers these questions with free and open discussions. This is where you need the participation of your employees who aren’t biased by your team leader’s opinions and who don’t expect to be whacked for raising difficult topics. Keep comments confidential, and make only the final results available for public consumption as post-review documentation of lessons learned. “It shouldn’t be evaluative, it should be prescriptive,” Parry said. “You want to document it in a way that somebody else who’s reading it – who wasn’t there – can actually use it. If you write stuff that’s directly reusable, then it’s likely to get reused.” This will help tomorrow’s new hire. Accomplish it by explaining such things as easily confused procedures as well as the trick the team used to make them work. “That’s like a little piece of gold,” Parry said, because it’s a usable. Simply documenting that the install went pretty well, we had a few problems, but the customer was happy, for example, is not.

Making it Work Even with multiple steps, employing an action-review cycle isn’t necessarily burdensome, and it may fit into the processes you already use to assign projects. It simply makes that process more disciplined and “learningful,” provided you include the right people and lead the process. When you do,

short-cycle reviews on a daily basis, with relevant parties meeting for 10 minutes early in the day and another 15 at the end. More likely, though, you will have one meeting before and after. In that case, a before-action review can be completed in 30 minutes, while the after-action portion requires only an hour or two.

Ultimately, the purpose behind the review cycle is long-term growth in people and process.

you also will lead a cultural change that provides long-term rewards. Choosing the participants requires recognizing the interdependencies in your shop. An installation isn’t just a technician job. It also involves sales, estimating, scheduling, ordering and billing. For the review cycle to work, you shouldn’t exclude people integral to its execution. In fact, all parties benefit from understanding the multiple moving parts in a simple job. This is especially true for new employees who need some orientation. The caveat covers when conversations need to be kept manageable on big projects, such as those that require sub teams of employees to accomplish the work. First, consider holding subteam meetings to address the work that the group had immediate control over, then a company-wide meeting among supervisors of all those teams to address the behemoth at the management level. Either way, the cycle doesn’t require elaborate daylong events. The material covered in a before-action or afteraction review depends on the scope of the project. Certainly, you can do

In either case, the highest-ranking company leader in the room must set the tone, especially at first. Expect your people to be cautious. As a manager, the solution to beating this fear is ensuring that some positive action comes from every bit of information. “It’s not about what you write down, it’s about what you do,” Parry said. “If action comes out of these that improves performance going forward, defensiveness is going to erode pretty quickly.” This is where the change in culture comes from, and it’s a cumulative effect. “When people have a really clear picture of what the intended results are, and some of the thinking behind that, then they’re enabled to perform effectively against it,” Parry said. “People can apply their smarts better and see opportunities to innovate or take initiative, and the team will start raising the bar on its own performance.” Ultimately, the purpose behind the review cycle is long-term growth in people and process. Without the fear of retribution, your business is freed to prosper. q
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Avionics News July 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News July 2012