The Real Learning Happens In The Debrief

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I have spent most of my career around the aviation community. Of the many things I have learned from these experiences, one of the most vital lessons has been the importance of the mission debrief. As the saying goes, the real learning happens in the debrief. 

For the uninitiated, I will try to give a (relatively) quick background on aircrew debriefs. The size, flow, and duration of aircrew mission debriefs depends on the nature of the event. A simple proficiency flight, such as carrier qualification (CQ) practice, will usually result in a relatively short admin debrief, where the aircrew review their mission and flight execution. In the case of CQ practice, the aircrew will also be debriefed by Landing Signals Officers (LSO) (i.e., paddles), who will specifically discuss their execution in the landing pattern. For more complex events, such as level upgrade flights, the debrief becomes significantly longer (~1-4 hours) and will discuss not only mission execution, but also how the aircrew performed during the pre-mission process, including pre-mission brief(s). Finally, for large scale events, such as Large Force Employment (LFE) exercise, there are several different debriefs. First, you will have the section/division debrief, where the immediate wingman will discuss the mission. Next, there is typically the air-to-air and air-to-surface debriefs. Finally, all of the players get together for the mass debrief. Once again, all aspects of the mission, from the pre-mission planning, brief, and execution are debriefed. The debrief process for an LFE can easily last 3-5 hours.

 So what is the big deal? Excellent question. The importance of the debrief is that it is a structured mechanism for extracting lessons learned at both the individual and group-level from every event. No training opportunity is wasted. Rank, egos, and feelings are put aside. For instance, if the senior pilot in the event was behind timeline (i.e., late executing a tactic) during the mission, they will be told so. In the same vein, the aircrew are also expected to fess up about their own failures. Trying to cover up failures and/or shirk responsibility is severely frowned upon. The ultimate goal is to identify mistakes, so they are not repeated in the future, especially during combat. It is a means of personal and institutional learning.

The problem in the intel community is that we have not developed the same debriefing mechanism that aircrew have. Superiors are often reticent or ill-equipped to provide effective and objective feedback. Juniors rarely have a means of and/or freedom to challenge superiors assessments, assertions, etc. Finally, we as analysts often have fragile egos and react defensively to feedback. In the end, briefers usually walk away with little more than a "good brief" and a pat on the back.

Just because our community as a whole hasn't embraced debriefs and similar feedback mechanisms, that does not mean there is not room to employ those mechanisms at the personal, division, department, and unit-levels. We should always try to solicit feedback from our seniors, peers, and subordinates. For example, when I give a brief, I want to know how well I did. I hate just receiving the typical "good brief." I want to know if I effectively conveyed the information and did the audience walk away better informed. Were my slides and graphics effective in aiding my teaching/briefing. Was my delivery smooth or did I come across as nervous (typically a weakness of mine). Without that feedback, I know I can't improve.

The flip side of receiving feedback is giving feedback. As superiors, juniors, and peers, we should always strive to provide others will objective and constructive feedback. Personally, I promise to never give you generic, vague feedback. Instead I will highlight what I thought you did well and where you have room for improvement. If I thought you really struggled, I will focus on the larger problems. On the other hand if I thought you did well, I will focus in on the more minute problems that were still holding you back.

In the end none of us will ever give a perfect brief or write a perfect product. We should always solicit feedback for our efforts and provide effective feedback for others. It is the only way to learn from our efforts and seek to improve in the future.

McFly 

The post first appeared in my "Mentorship Via Email" blog on MilSuite on 26 August, 2016.  https://www.milsuite.mil/book/people/jay.p.mcvann

The opinions expressed in this email/post are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of PERS-473 (INTEL), Joint Staff, United States Navy, Department of Defense, or United States government.