After Action Review, AAR
Updated 2026-08-13
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
The After Action Review, originating with the US Army and now widely used in business and personal growth, asks four questions: what did we expect, what actually happened, why the gap appeared, and how to improve next time. Finishing a task is not the same as learning from it; the review is the step that converts tacit knowledge into explicit, reusable assets.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Ask the four: walk through expectation, actuality, gap, and learning in that fixed order. - Make tacit explicit: force the lesson into words and a written next action so experience becomes an asset. - Close the loop: end every review with an item that changes the next round.
Anchor fast decisions
A one-off experience stays tacit and is lost unless it is articulated and compared against intent. Structured review externalizes it: stating the expected and actual outcome exposes the gap, asking why surfaces the root cause, and naming the lesson converts a single event into a reusable cognitive asset.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After-action_reviewverified
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