Your Team Is Not Getting Smarter

The 5-Minute Debrief That Teaches Them On The Job

Ever wish you had a do-over at work? 

Like the customer QBR that went OK, but there were a couple of key moments that you know you and your team would handle differently if you had the chance to do it over again. 

What you do immediately after an event like this will determine whether you're building a top-performing team or whether you're on the path to mediocrity. 

I know you're not here for mediocrity so let me show you one of the most powerful tools you can add to your leadership toolbox. 

It’s a 5-minute debrief routine that you can run immediately after any event, milestone, or incident, including customer QBRs.

Three questions. 

No blame. 

Five minutes. 

Instantly raising the bar for your team. 

You don't have time to pull your whole team off the job and put them in training. 

You might not have budget for that even if you did have the time. 

Is there even a course for something like this? 

Your team has got to be able to learn on the fly. 

Every day.

Through every key action, including the ones that went great, and the ones that were not so great.

What Is Debriefing? 

Debriefing is a short, structured conversation you run immediately after a key event. 

A customer QBR is a great example but it can also be after a customer escalation call, a project milestone, a big meeting, really any meaningful action that your team takes. 

This is not a full post-mortem or kaizen review. Those have their place as well. This is different. This is an immediate learning event, while details are still fresh in our minds. 

How I Run The Five-Minute Debrief 

Immediately after any key event, huddle the team for five minutes. 

Ask them these questions:

• What went well? 

• What didn't go well? 

• What did we learn? What will we do differently next time? 

Five to ten minutes, max. 

Everyone gets a chance to speak, not just the boss. 

No blame. 

Pitfalls You Must Avoid

Pitfall number one: turning this into a blame session. 

If your team senses that the purpose is to assign fault, they're going to shut down. People will go on the defensive, offer excuses, or just stop speaking altogether. 

Pitfall number two: letting the leader dominate. 

The less air time you take up, the more ownership your team will feel for the answers. Your job is to ask the questions, set the tone, and then listen. 

Pitfall number three: only debriefing after failure. 

Debriefing only after failure turns this into a punitive exercise. The intent of the debrief is to reflect and learn. After wins, capture what worked and how you can repeat it. Remember, even when you win, you still want to know what you can do better next time. 

Pitfall number four: losing immediacy. 

The longer you wait, the more the details get blurry and lessons fade away. 

You can even build this into your normal routines. At the beginning of every weekly team meeting I would to ask my team: 

• What went well last week? 

• What didn't go well in the last week? 

• What do we learn from that? 

The bar is constantly being raised for your team. Your job is to build a team of top performers who are constantly meeting and raising that bar. 

Debriefing is the secret that the highest performing teams in the world know. 

Now you know the secret. 

Come back and tell me how this is going for you. I can't wait to hear. 

Best,

Jeff

P.S. If you’re a tech industry manager who has recently inherited a new team, let me help you steer clear of some common pitfalls. Grab my free, 5-day email course called: The 5 Mistakes Tech Managers Make When Taking on New Teams.