Effective Post-Mortem Discussions

The crisis is over. The situation is past. Now how do we bring closure to this difficult set of experiences?

Most people don’t use post-mortems, but I think it’s an important step to bring closure and allow healing - especially after a difficult situation. Here are the steps I've used to great success:

1. Gather all players together (including vendor personnel, if appropriate) and thank everyone for their efforts. Focus on trying to put everyone at ease so they know it's not an inquisition and it's okay to relax.

2. Review what happened by having people 'tell the story' of what happened. Encourage everyone to add to the story no matter how small their role. Look to understand, not to blame. Show everyone the utmost respect.

3. Look for Lessons Learned. Ask "What did we learn from all this?" "What changes do we want to make moving forward?" etc.

4. Assign follow-up tasks and due dates, as appropriate. Have someone put these assignments in writing and distribute to everyone within 24 hours.

5. Make them laugh. Thank them again. Get ‘em back to work.

Hope this helps.