The Post Mortem

Amongst the various medical-related definitions of post mortem...is "an analysis or review of a finished event" and this is where I'm at regarding this piece...

So we all know that every task should have a preceeding in-depth briefing...right? Sure it should...

Realistically this isn't always possible - life gets in the way of a lot of best intentions, and for a variety of valid reasons often you just roll out, shake out, and rely on experience to pull a fastball job into a decent shape.

If there's time, any plan is better than no plan - and if you do have the opportunity to sit down and get everybody on the same page, run through the proposed tasking, and 'pre-mortem' what could go wrong, with contingencies to cope...but you don't take the time to do so - well, there's a word to describe this, that rhymes with 'nunprofessional' and this is just the polite term...

After a tasking...what's the procedure? What happens? High-fives, group hugs, then bomb-burst back to the hotel or train station, to put a quick post on LinkedIn?

On an 'official' level there should be some kind of report made, call it an 'After Action Report' or 'AAR' to sound cool maybe, but for all kinds of accountability reasons, even if the potential intelligence benefits aren't considered, there should be a note of what went on, where, with who, and when. You could argue against doing this...but not credibly...

Sitting the team down, to 'decompress' somewhat, before popping smoke to catch up with the current Netflix mini-series, is a valuable practice that pays off in a big way, especially with established operations - this is nothing new for some, as standard practice amongst certain groups, but something I'd recommend to everbody.

Based on previous experience, I have a rule for this session, and why it's called a post mortem...and not just a debrief...

Let's agree that no job, no move, no debus, no anything, is ever perfect - often far from it - so after the obligatory "Nice job today folks...thanks for your hard work...nobody died...most of us are still wearing pants...well done..." we move into what wasn't so good...what totally sucked...what we could improve...so next time it'll be better.

So one by one, let's start cutting into the task - nothing, nobody, is off-limits for critique...be as blunt as you want...but...one condition - you have to start with yourself. What did you mess up? What could you improve on? Brutal honesty counts for a lot here...nobody really trusts anyone who is apparently never wrong...do they?

Criticism with purpose, with reasoning, is good - criticism for the sake of complaining is not...it's whining.

Having a thick skin, not taking what is said as any kind of personal attack - because it must not be - is imperative...I view anyone who takes even mild critique badly as a BIG red flag - we are supposed to be robust individuals, physically and mentally, to the extent that we can protect others from serious 'life gone wrong' threats to their well-being...but we can't take objective criticism without sulking and making excuses? Come on...

There's no better time for a post mortem than immediately after a task...when the events are still fresh, we're still all dressed and equipped to party, maybe still have the vehicles on hand...

...because, and to some it'll sound excessive - though I doubt these types are still reading by now - before we do stack for the day, we could set up and fix that crappy embuss with a couple of walk throughs, or whatever we've agreed could do with a little work.

Owning your mistakes and shortcomings is a big deal...there's no faster route to excellence than identifying a fault, and taking immediate steps to rectify it.

If you're driving and one of the dreaded red warning lights pops up on the dashboard...only an idiot sticks the car on the driveway, ignores it and expects it to be fixed in the morning - just acknowledging a fault isn't fixing it...it's just the start of the process is all.

Apply this same reasoning to operational issues...before you can fix something, you have to recognise the problem...but then you have to ACTUALLY fix it...not just talk about it.