The Rule of Mediocrity

Any good procedure will be made mediocre by standardization.

me

The Army came up with a really good method for reviewing training:
  The After Action Review or AAR.

The AAR concept is very simple: after any activity, at the first opportunity, get the key people involved and as many participants as can reasonably be present, and create two lists:

• Everything that went right.
• Everything that went wrong.

There are a few basic rules:

• List, don’t solve. Finding solutions can come later.
  The important thing is to collect all the data.
• Do not edit, if it is said, write it down.
• Do not look for, or assign blame. This is a no fault collection of data.
• Anyone can speak.

I used this procedure to improve my unit when I was a First Sergeant. When we started the procedure, the “Went Wrong” list took two columns on a legal size pad and there were only about three things on the “Went Right” list. A year later, the “Went Right” list was two columns, and the “Went Wrong” list had only a couple of items.

The Army culture standardized this as they did not like reporting long lists-particularly of less than perfect results. “Three up; Three down” became the new AAR with only the leadership involved. Needless to say, the new AAR failed to do anything useful.

The original purpose was to obtain an accurate picture of performance to improve the activity. The final version was a reporting item that improved nothing.