Q3 Is Coming:Is Your Team Ready?

Welcome – the session will begin shortly!

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

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

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

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

AFTERBURNERWHO WE ARE

FLAWLESS EXECUTION CYCLE

PLAN BRIEF

EXECUTEDEBRIEF

WIN!

PLANNING BRIEFING EXECUTION DEBRIEFING

LEAR

NING

TIME

ACCELERATING EXPERIENCE

20-YEAR CLIENT AVERAGE

6.85PLANNING

3.73DEBRIEFING

5.01BRIEFING

7.93EXECUTING

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

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%

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

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

Case Study 2Mission: 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

Case Study 3Mission: 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

Set the Time and Place

Execution vs. Objectives

Tone

STEALTH® DEBRIEF

Analyze Execution

Lessons Learned

High Note

Transfer Lessons Learned

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)

Q2 Debrief• Set the Tone

– Start with self-critique– Request additional critiques

• Then wait

Q2 Debrief• Re-State the Mission Objective

– Don’t have one? Lesson Learned #1: Always have a Mission Objective

Q2 Debrief• Analyze Execution

– Identify root cause for your Debrief Focus Points

– Identify recurring root causes

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?

Q2 Debrief• Transfer Lessons Learned

– Share with other teams or individuals within your functional group

– Share with Leadership– Create Standard Operating Procedures

Q2 Debrief• High Note

– What went well in Q2?– How is our progress towards our strategic

goals?– How will Lessons Learned ensure future

success?

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

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

What Next?• Debrief

• Use a structured Debrief

• Use a 3rd party facilitator

• Create the Debrief culture to create a learning culture

Joel “Thor” Neebthor@afterburner.com Afterburner.com@AfterburnerInc#FlawlessExecution