4 Reasons Why Debriefing Should Be a Staple of Your Business

Admittedly, I was the Marine Corps geek.  Every Marine is a rifleman – I get that.  But I was an intel weenie.  I remember a particular exercise where my company went on a 5 mile hump.  A hump is basically a forced march.  You wear “Boots and Utes” and carry a pack of some amount of weight.  On this particular exercise, I believe I was carrying 50 lbs – pretty light for USMC norms.

I had bought new boots the day before.  Do you remember getting new shoes before the first day of school?  How excited you were?  That was me as a 24-year-old Sergeant Idiot.  I wore those new boots on this hump.  When we made the turn at the half-way point, I knew I was in trouble.  By the time we were done, my feet looked like hamburger.  My feet were so jacked up that I had to wear civilian clothes for a week before I could get my boots back on.

After this particular exercise, we did what Marines always do – debrief.  On that day, my CO (commanding officer) looked at me and said, “Barron, bad move with the new boots.  Smack yourself.”

Debriefing is a staple of the Marine Corps, and it should be for your business as well.  Formal debriefs allow for your team to pause.  It is a forced and scheduled pause, really.  Too often we jump from one task to the next without slowing down or taking a breath.  Valuable lessons that could be learned fall through the cracks.  We don’t learn from our mistakes.  We miss opportunities to improve.  We stop growing.

This post is not about how to debrief – it is about why.  However, I have four rules to guide a debrief.

  1. There is no rank in a debrief.  Everyone on the team must have the freedom to express themselves.  They must be able to articulate their experiences and opinions without fear.  The boss/manager may facilitate the debrief, but there should be no rank.
  2. There must be truth.  If your team is not going to tell the truth, don’t bother.  You are wasting your time.
  3. There must be emotion.  I’ve heard people talk about how this needs to be an emotionless process.  I don’t buy that.  Frankly, I don’t think it is possible.  If you are passionate about what you do, it is always personal.  Embrace your emotions and communicate them – though professionally.
  4. Everyone must participate.  The leader of the debrief must require that everyone engages, period.  The quiet guy in the corner has something to say.  If he doesn’t say it during the debrief, he will at the water cooler.  Not good.

The Four Reasons to Debrief

  1. Growth – I’m currently reading John Maxwell’s new book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth (highly recommend, affiliate link).  He points out that teams that don’t stop and evaluate don’t grow.  Do you stop to debrief after a presentation?  What went well?  What didn’t?  What can I learn to improve next time?  What about after a closing, or an expired listing?  All of these are opportunities to stop and grow.
  2. Unity – Unity is a function of many things, but being on the same page is a huge part of it.  When your team members know they have an opportunity to contribute and be heard, unity is bred.  Unity is not the same thing as unanimity.  Everyone does not have to agree.  But if everyone has their say, dissenters can get both shoulders behind a decision because they were heard.
  3. Feedback – Feedback is hugely valuable to the leader.  During the pause of a debrief, the leader will get great feedback that would have been lost otherwise.  For instance, I’ve learned that I speak painfully slowly when I am thinking.  When I prepare, this is not an issue.  I never realized this until I was told during a debrief.
  4. Vision – Vision is clarity regarding direction.  It is the leader’s responsibility to have that clarity and then cast it.  Debriefs are perfect times to reinforce the vision of the company.  I solve my client’s problems and help them capitalize on their opportunities.  How did my marketing efforts the last 6 months accomplish that vision?  How could I do it better?

Now let me hear from you.  Is the debrief a staple of your business?  Share a story of a lesson learned during the pause of a debrief.

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Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.

  • The idea of “no rank” is huge and truly falls on the leader to make it happen. If you really want truth, (“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”) you must ALWAYS foster an environment that promotes openness, a place (in the debrief) where we can agree to disagree and there is no retribution. This is all much easier said than done.
    As for emotion, I realize you Marines are a sappy bunch, but on the Army side we tend to minimize the emotions and focus on the facts. The facts will lead us to the truth…even if we don’t like it and that can lead us to the clarity we need to truly evaluate the situation we are debriefing.

    Great story about the boots…you should slap yourself again for old times sake. jc

    • We are pretty sappy – haha! My point on emotions are that they will bleed out at some point. The debrief is an appropriate and safe place to do it. The military environment with its heightened disciple tends to minimize this. In the civilian world, preventing emotions from “breathing” can cause the team to slowly erode over time.

      Thanks for your thoughts, John.

  • Bo, another good post. You are becoming a staple for me. I would stress de-briefing yourself, as in “myself,” not you. I often go to conference and seminars and don’t spend the time to de-brief myself afterwards and loose a lot of my thoughts, direction and value that I gained. As a matter of fact, I have got to de-brief myself from the ICSC Legal conference this weekend.

    • Howard – thanks for the kind words. You have nailed it on the head on the personal side. How often do we go to a class or conference where we hear tremendous actionable information? Then we get back to the real world and we immediately start to play catch-up. If we don’t stop to debrief ourselves, we wasted our time.

      A side effect of this is the underlying and building frustration that we know we can do better. Known best practices not applied equals frustration.

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