Learning is in the Debrief

Photo by Stanley Zimny

Jenny Tarwater recently gave an amazing closing keynote at Agile Games Midwest on Making it Pop - Debriefing Experiential Learning. She pointed out that learning doesn’t just happen from experiencing an activity—it comes from reflection on that experience.

Given that, the opportunity for learning is all around us. We as individuals and in groups are continually having experiences that can be mined for reflections to turn into learning. Strong debriefs of games and activities enable us to think and act more effectively going forward. Agility comes from our ability to think and act together.

There’s a powerful lens we can use when facilitating debriefs that Jenny shared in her keynote: the What – So What – Now What? Adaptive Action model.

What

To debrief an experience, we need to take a step back to talk about it. This step can feel slow, especially after a high-energy game or busy period of activities. Here we collect the facts, observations, and emotions of the experience we’re reflecting upon. When we’re in the moment, we may miss some of the action that others are involved in. And we may forget some of the happenings that transpired to get us to where we are now.

Sitting with ideas and hearing alternative viewpoints can feel awkward, especially now as we’re seeing ourselves on camera. People may be slow to recall what happened or share how they felt during an experience—and then they have to unmute their microphones or type into a tool.

Facilitators set a focus area for people to share their memories and reactions; they give time for this fuller picture to be created. It’s a picture of the group’s collective experience, and once shared, it will be easier for people to reflect and make meaning of the experience.

So What

As we look at the information compiled during What, we may notice themes and surprising one-offs. This step is facilitating learning by creating opportunity for people to gain insights and form new interpretations of their experience.

Here we explore patterns that have emerged and become apparent to us. Our thinking is actively shifting during this step. We are making up new ideas about the world around us and how this past experience is relevant to our work going forward. If we are debriefing a game, we discuss how the game play relates to real life (otherwise the game is little more than a fun activity). As people interpret our experience differently, they may feel vulnerable or uncertain about sharing their new understandings. They need time to dream up what these patterns or conditions mean going forward.

Obvious and not-so-obvious summations from our collective What need to be stated for the sake of the group to reflect upon.

Now What

Now What is to lock in what we’ll do going forward. We may be looking at specific actions to take or anticipating what we’ll in a similar situation in the future.

I find that facilitators and groups often want to touch lightly on What, skip over the So What, and rush to action-planning. Here’s a secret: the next steps become more clear when we’ve spent proper time going through What and So What. Rushing here too quickly tends to generate lackluster actions and low commitment—people may speak about what they “should do” because they are not feeling creative or at choice.

Facilitators need to keep in mind that the goal of a debrief is not merely for a group to create a list of action items by the end—it is for the group to be prepared to take action and learn from doing it. The energy that people feel when they come up with a possible action and decide to do it can carry forward into the actual doing. Driving a group to make commitments can end up being wasteful. Set them up for success by enabling them to make those decisions from a place of creativity and choice. I’ve been surprised by how a simple question like, “What are you taking away from this conversation?” or “What will you do next time?” can spark clear future actions from groups.

Game Debriefs are like Retrospectives

Agilists might read this post and recognize that debriefs function like retrospectives for groups to capture takeaways from experiential learning. Yes! The facilitation skills are quite similar. You might have even noticed similarities between the Adaptive Action model and the five phases of a retrospective outlined in Esther Derby and Diana Larsen’s book, Agile Retrospectives (that makes sense since I first learned about the Adaptive Action model through Esther and Diana).

Helping groups process experiences to deepen learning is important, whether it’s reviewing a game that they played or a period of time they worked together. Agility comes from our ability to think and act together. We build trust and align on goals when we share our experiences, make meaning of it, and plan for the future as a group.