After-Action Reviews (AARs) are a critical part of the emergency recovery phase. In this article, we explore why AARs matter, and share Ally’s methodology for conducting effective reviews with your team after an unexpected event or emergency.

Emergencies Happen. Learn from Them.

Despite best efforts to prevent, mitigate and prepare, emergencies are inevitable. From cyber events to natural disasters, infectious diseases and climate-related crises – the world throws no shortage of curveballs. Emergency management professionals know that rigorous training and exercises are essential – but even the best prepared teams will face unexpected challenges and setbacks. Emergencies will happen, but learning from them is key.

What is an After-Action Review?

An After-Action Review (AAR) is a crucial step in the recovery phase of an emergency, regardless of the scope and scale of the event. AARs were originally developed and utilized by the US military in the 1970s as a way to learn from successes and failures of combat missions and training exercises. The practice became and remains embedded in the culture of the US and Canadian armed forces. By the late 1990s, the practice had spread to business and government as a way to promote continuous improvement after completion of a planned business activity, or an unexpected event or emergency.

The structure and formality of an AAR will vary depending on the subject matter, as well as the scale and scope of the emergency or event. Regardless of the form it may take, an AAR should bring groups together in an open and honest setting to debrief what happened. Through the debrief, the following three overarching questions should be addressed:

1. What went well and what strengths can we identify?

2. What did not go well and what what weaknesses were exposed?

3. What overall lessons did we learn?

Ally’s Experience with After-Action Reviews

The Ally team has conducted AARs with clients across many sectors including oil and gas, shipping, academic institutions, and in the public sector with municipal and regional governments. Regardless of their field, all teams benefit from debriefing after an event or emergency.

Floods and Fires

One of the most common ways that Ally has engaged with clients and AARs is in the context of wildfires and floods. In Western Canada these extreme weather events – along with extreme heat events – have become more frequent and severe and the trend is expected to continue. The powerful atmospheric river that devastated the Fraser Valley in 2021 is one of several costly reminders.

The complexity of the response is particularly noteworthy for large-scale floods and wildfires, involving not only the local government, but also many agencies, organizations, and businesses that play a crucial role in saving lives and mitigating damage to critical infrastructure and the environment. It is the complexity of the response to floods and fires that makes the after-action review so important. Fast-moving emergencies require inter-agency coordination – challenging even in the best of times.

The Ally Approach to AAR Methodology

Timeline of Events: When Ally conducts an AAR our first step is to create a timeline of events from the initial detection of the emergency to the demobilization stages. Our intention here is to capture factual, pertinent details about what happened and when. We find this step important to orient all participants to a shared timeline of events and understanding of known impacts. A key resource for building this timeline is the Situation Reports completed the by the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) of lead responding agency.

Online Survey to Identify Themes: When Ally conducts an AAR we like to offer participants the chance to provide some thoughts through an on-line survey in advance of the in-person debrief sessions. The survey is not meant to capture detailed recollections from each person involved, but rather key aspects of the event that stood out as especially challenging or successful. It also tends to get the juices re-flowing for people who were involved in the event but have returned to their day-to-day responsibilities. Survey results also help us identify themes in advance of the in-person debriefs that can be helpful in structuring conversations.

Facilitated Debrief Sessions: This is the meat of the AAR process, and it can take many forms. Depending on the number of people involved, a facilitated de-brief can be a one-time gathering of everyone who had a role in the response, or separate sessions for each distinct group or agency that was involved. When Ally led the After-Action Review process for the 2021 atmospheric river flooding the Fraser Valley, we held separate debrief sessions for the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), several incident site groups, stranded travellers, Emergency Support Services (ESS), and the Executive Leadership Team of the Fraser Valley Regional District. By allowing groups to debrief separately, the process is more manageable and focused.

Another way that we make the process manageable is to structure the discussions using “Incident Response Phases”. These phases allow participants to better structure their thoughts and make recommendations base do the “life cycle” of an incident response, which varies in intensity over the course of an incident.

When discussing a significant emergency response, it’s easy to fall into discussion that focuses solely on what went wrong. However in nearly every emergency there will be stories of great success and strength, where individuals and teams rose above and beyond to save lives, help people in need, and minimize damage to infrastructure and the environment. As facilitators, Ally believes it’s essential to highlight these parts of the story in the debriefs, enabling them to be celebrated and built upon.

Two final thoughts on Ally’s approach to leading facilitated debriefs. Firstly, what is said in the room, stays in the room, unless it is agreed by everyone that it is something to be shared. As authors of the final report, Ally walks a careful line to ensure we maintain confidences while identifying recommendations for improvement. Finally, when we gather groups together we encourage and facilitate a climate of mutual respect where the focus is on the issues rather than affixing blame. In other words: a debrief is not “Festivus”.

After-Action Report: The number of successes, challenges and observations that are captured in an AAR from an emergency event can be overwhelming. There are nearly always heartwarming or heroic successes, along with many ways in which the response could have gone better. The final step in the AAR process is to synthesize the data in a way that honours the richness of the details and personal stories that were shared, while presenting it in a format that supports ongoing improvement. Identifying the main themes is a useful process for organizing the information for any interested party, as well as a clear articulation of specific successes and opportunities that were identified for each stage of the response. Ally’s After-Action reports also typically identify the top 10 key recommendations that are believed to be of central importance.

Don’t Let Lessons Go Unused

No matter your industry, the AAR process offers a powerful opportunity to learn, adapt, and improve. An AAR is more than a checkbox – it’s a meaningful process that can strengthen your team, develop inter-agency coordination, clarify roles, and build resilience for whatever comes next.

At Ally, we bring expertise and a tailored approach to every AAR we facilitate. Whether you’ve just navigated a complex emergency, completed a major project, or hosted a large-scale event, our team can guide you through a proven process that uncovers insights and builds lasting organizational capacity.

Let’s turn your experience into progress. Reach out to Ally to learn how we can support your After-Action Review process.