Improving performance in teams: After Action Reviews in Army combat training

Feedback can be challenging to both give and receive, especially for high-readiness combat forces. Military combat operations are exemplified by danger, uncertainty, confusion, and risk. Training exercises for combat forces provide a learning opportunity to improve performance in task and team functions. Learning efficacy can be increased through appropriate feedback. For decades, the AAR (AAR) has been employed by the Australian Army as a mechanism for team feedback. The effectiveness and efficiency of the AAR in contemporary training has come into question in some environments, including at the Combat Training Centre (CTC). This research sought to evaluate the efficacy of the AAR during Army combat training as an activity to improve team performance. 

The AAR literature noted the lack of theoretical basis for the AAR and highlighted gaps in understanding the effectiveness of the AAR in collective combat training, and in the Australian Army specifically. A constructivist approach and case-study methodology were selected to frame the evaluation of AAR artefacts and the conduct of semi-structured interviews with 29 purposively selected senior combat veterans who were all experienced in collective training of combat forces. Thematically analysed data answered three research questions related to the effectiveness feedback in AARs and identified a series of factors that influence AAR effectiveness in practice. The findings from this research may be applicable to other contexts. 

The research confirmed that feedback activities during and after collective training can be useful; however, their effectiveness was influenced by several factors, including a lack of alignment between the goal and the processes, the learning requirements of the team, the clarity of the process and the level of facilitation. The research aligned Experiential Learning Theory with AAR practices to provide a more resilient basis for learning activity design and feedback activities. Other research outcomes included the development of a taxonomy of common feedback activities to support the selection of the most appropriate team feedback activity and a simplified feedback model, titled ERRATA, based upon the process steps of Engage, Review, Reflect, Transition, and Act, and designed to maximise feedback activities. The research highlighted that team feedback activities in Army combat training can be optimised by confirmation of the activity goal, alignment to the expected outputs, consideration of team learning factors, and a simplified feedback process.