Q3 is the perfect time to reflect and re-align on the years' campaign and the supporting missions. Learn how to assess your current environment for new threats and resources which will increase your teams Situational Awareness. You will also learn how to integrate Lessons Learned to accelerate your individual, team, and organizational performance.

1. Q3 Is Coming:
Is Your Team Ready?
Welcome – the session will begin shortly!

2. Companies achieve only 33% of expected results
from their strategic plans.
The Gap between expectation and performance is
a failure of companies to execute strategy.
Markon Associates and the Economist Intelligence Unit

3. Q3 is Here!
• Stop Repeating Mistakes
• Leverage Best Practices
• Update Progress towards Annual Objectives
• Pivot for success in the second half of 2016
• How? The Debrief

4. Agenda
• Who we are
• Why Debrief?
• The STEALTH® Debrief
• Tips for your Debrief
• Q&A with an Ace

5. Atlanta, GA
• President of Afterburner
• USAF F-15 Mission Commander
• U.S. Presidential Escort Missions
• Air Force Academy Graduate
• M.S. Aerospace Science / MBA from UT
• Instructor Pilot of the Year at USAF Training HQ
• Embedded with Silicon Valley Tech Company in 2015
Thor

6. AFTERBURNER
WHO WE ARE

8. FLAWLESS EXECUTION CYCLE
PLAN BRIEF
EXECUTEDEBRIEF
WIN!

9. PLANNING BRIEFING EXECUTION DEBRIEFING
LEARNING
TIME
ACCELERATING EXPERIENCE

10. 20-YEAR CLIENT AVERAGE
6.85
PLANNING
3.73
DEBRIEFING
5.01
BRIEFING
7.93
EXECUTING

11. WHY DEBRIEF?
• Stay ahead of the rate of change in the marketplace.
– “This is not about a company in transition – it’s about an entire industry in
transition. We’re going after our second act of innovation – a feat that is typically
elusive to tech companies.”
» CEO, Tech Industry
• Make it through the Great Shift change.
– “We have a top heavy organization in terms of talent. The new team members
have a lot of catching up to do and there isn’t much time.
» CEO, Finance Industry
• Become a more agile organization that learns and adapts from the past.
– “Success can hide 1,000 ills. Why did that product succeed? Why did that product
fail? We never truly answer those questions.”
» SVP, Tech Industry
11

12. 10%
20%
30+%
DEBRIEFING
Tannenbaum & Cerasoli. “Do Team and Individual Debriefs Enhance Performance? A Meta-Analysis.” Group for Organizational
Effectiveness, Human Factors Vol. 55, No. 1, February 2013
Unstructured
Debriefing 22%
Structured
Debriefing 38%
Facilitated Debrief
+27%

13. The Numbers – without a Debrief
• 33% of Strategic Objectives are achieved market-wide
• Your company achieves 60% success rate
• You don’t Debrief, but you do learn from the school of
hard knocks, so you improve by 5% each time
• After 3 iterations, your team has a 66% chance of
success

14. The Numbers – with a Debrief
• Your company achieves 60% success rate
• You do Debrief, and you use the Structured
Debrief format (38% improvement each time)
• After 3 iterations, your team has a 86% chance
of success

15. Case Study 2
Mission: Increase YOY monthly Sales by 10%
• Result: only 8% YOY monthly sales increase
• Root Cause: Weak merchandise demos and few
client references
• Lesson Learned: Create merchandise demo
video and share three key client references with
entire sales team
Next month:
15% YOY monthly sales increase

16. Case Study 3
Mission: Win the Super Bowl!
Result: 4-4 mid-season
• Root Cause: Lack of Debrief Culture
• Lesson Learned: Conduct Structured
Debriefs after each play, between
quarters and after games
Next month: Giants win the Super Bowl

17. Set the Time and Place
Execution vs. Objectives
Tone
STEALTH® DEBRIEF
Analyze Execution
Lessons Learned
High Note
Transfer Lessons Learned

18. Q2 Debrief
• Set the time and place
– Determine who needs to attend
– Plan for two hours, one hour if facilitated
– Can be remotely dispersed
– Assign pre-reads
– Determine Debrief Focus Points (max 3 per hour)

19. Q2 Debrief
• Set the Tone
– Start with self-critique
– Request additional critiques
• Then wait

20. Q2 Debrief
• Re-State the Mission Objective
– Don’t have one? Lesson Learned #1: Always
have a Mission Objective

21. Q2 Debrief
• Analyze Execution
– Identify root cause for your Debrief Focus
Points
– Identify recurring root causes

22. Q2 Debrief
• Lesson Learned
– Identify specific actions to avoid repeating
mistakes and address root causes
– Not “communicate better” or “be organized”
– What specifically will we do differently in the
second half of Q3?

23. Q2 Debrief
• Transfer Lessons Learned
– Share with other teams or individuals within
your functional group
– Share with Leadership
– Create Standard Operating Procedures

24. Q2 Debrief
• High Note
– What went well in Q2?
– How is our progress towards our strategic
goals?
– How will Lessons Learned ensure future
success?

25. Three Tips for Your First Debrief
• #1 Lesson Learned: Start with Why. Continue with Why.
End with Why.
– “I never understood why this Mission was so important.”
• #2 Lesson Learned: Start with a clear Plan.
– “We didn’t start with a clear plan, so you can’t hold me
accountable!”
• Debrief a Win first

26. Q&A with an Ace
• Hari Ramakrishnan
– Chief of Staff to CEO at
$26bn tech company
– Supported 50+ FLEX
Missions across three
continents and 20,000
employees

27. What Next?
• Debrief
• Use a structured Debrief
• Use a 3rd party facilitator
• Create the Debrief culture to create a learning
culture

28. Joel “Thor” Neeb
thor@afterburner.com
Afterburner.com
@AfterburnerInc
#FlawlessExecution