Master the After Action Review (AAR) to improve the outcome of any personal or professional activity. From the beginning of time, humans have survived and thrived by learning from their experiences - both good and bad - and then tweaked their actions for better results next time. This continual quest for improvement stems from the difference between "what was" and "what could be." Even if we're not consciously aware of it, we're constantly seeking improvement in this very same way. If we turn to this analysis in a more intentional and methodical way, with an eye towards continuous improvement (CI), then next time around the outcomes can be more rewarding and desirable. After Action Review (AAR) is a continuous improvement approach for reflecting on the work of a group or team. Learn how to apply both informal and formal AAR approaches. Along with a complete walkthrough, the book includes resources and materials you can use in your work right now. For example, the Group Insights template will help you distinguish "likes" from "wishes," and the Planning Template will show you how to optimize the time spent during the AAR. Chapter 1 covers basic facilitation skills needed to conduct an AAR including active listening, questioning, information gathering and analysis, public speaking, presenting, intervening, and managing group dynamics. Chapter 2 explains the AAR in detail including its value proposition and frameworks. Chapter 3 explores the informal AAR and Chapter 4 the formal AAR.

Are you satisfied with the way your company responds to IT incidents? How prepared is your response team to handle critical, time-sensitive events such as service disruptions and security breaches? IT professionals looking for effective response models have successfully adopted the Incident Management System (IMS) used by firefighters throughout the US. This practical book shows you how to apply the same response methodology to your own IT operation. You’ll learn how IMS best practices for leading people and managing time apply directly to IT incidents where the stakes are high and outcomes are uncertain. This book provides use cases of some of the largest (and smallest) IT operations teams in the world. There is a better way to respond. You just found it. Assess your IT incident response with the PROCESS programmatic evaluation tool Get an overview of the IMS all-hazard, all-risk framework Understand the responsibilities of the Incident Commander Form a unified command structure for events that affect multiple business units Systematically evaluate what broke and how the incident team responded

This first volume to analyze the science of meetings offers a unique perspective on an integral part of contemporary work life. More than just a tool for improving individual and organizational effectiveness and well-being, meetings provide a window into the very essence of organizations and employees' experiences with the organization. The average employee attends at least three meetings per week and managers spend the majority of their time in meetings. Meetings can raise individuals, teams, and organizations to tremendous levels of achievement. However, they can also undermine effectiveness and well-being. The Cambridge Handbook of Meeting Science assembles leading authors in industrial and organizational psychology, management, marketing, organizational behavior, anthropology, sociology, and communication to explore the meeting itself, including pre-meeting activities and post-meeting activities. It provides a comprehensive overview of research in the field and will serve as an invaluable starting point for scholars who seek to understand and improve meetings.

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction "Redeployment is hilarious, biting, whipsawing and sad. It’s the best thing written so far on what the war did to people’s souls.” —Dexter Filkins, The New York Times Book Review Selected as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post Book World, Amazon, and more Phil Klay's Redeployment takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven with themes of brutality and faith, guilt and fear, helplessness and survival, the characters in these stories struggle to make meaning out of chaos. In "Redeployment", a soldier who has had to shoot dogs because they were eating human corpses must learn what it is like to return to domestic life in suburbia, surrounded by people "who have no idea where Fallujah is, where three members of your platoon died." In "After Action Report", a Lance Corporal seeks expiation for a killing he didn't commit, in order that his best friend will be unburdened. A Morturary Affairs Marine tells about his experiences collecting remains—of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers both. A chaplain sees his understanding of Christianity, and his ability to provide solace through religion, tested by the actions of a ferocious Colonel. And in the darkly comic "Money as a Weapons System", a young Foreign Service Officer is given the absurd task of helping Iraqis improve their lives by teaching them to play baseball. These stories reveal the intricate combination of monotony, bureaucracy, comradeship and violence that make up a soldier's daily life at war, and the isolation, remorse, and despair that can accompany a soldier's homecoming. Redeployment has become a classic in the tradition of war writing. Across nations and continents, Klay sets in devastating relief the two worlds a soldier inhabits: one of extremes and one of loss. Written with a hard-eyed realism and stunning emotional depth, this work marks Phil Klay as one of the most talented new voices of his generation.

"ACRP Synthesis 72: Tabletop and Full-Scale Emergency Exercises for General Aviation, Non-Hub, and Small Hub Airports provides small airports with the tools and practices needed to practice emergency response. The report provides sample exercise tools and plans, a checklist of effective practices for tabletop and full-scale emergency exercises, and a road map for developing an effective exercise program."--Publisher's description.

Most managers today understand the value of building a learning organization. Their goal is to leverage knowledge and make it a key corporate asset, yet they remain uncertain about how best to get started. What they lack are guidelines and tools that transform abstract theory—the learning organization as an ideal—into hands-on implementation. For the first time in Learning in Action, David Garvin helps managers make the leap from theory to proven practice. Garvin argues that at the heart of organizational learning lies a set of processes that can be designed, deployed, and led. He starts by describing the basic steps in every learning process—acquiring, interpreting, and applying knowledge—then examines the critical challenges facing managers at each of these stages and the various ways the challenges can be met. Drawing on decades of scholarship and a wealth of examples from a wide range of fields, Garvin next introduces three modes of learning—intelligence gathering, experience, and experimentation—and shows how each mode is most effectively deployed. These approaches are brought to life in complete, richly detailed case studies of learning in action at organizations such as Xerox, L. L. Bean, the U. S. Army, and GE. The book concludes with a discussion of the leadership role that senior executives must play to make learning a day-to-day reality in their organizations.

The author was an infantry squad leader and platoon sergeant in the famed 101st Airborne Division in the last years of the war in Vietnam. His poems, written often in foxholes and on bunker lines, trace a year-long tour of duty to chronicle the fear, hope, pride, guilt, and frustration of a combat soldier, and the issues of dealing with the experiences of war after separation from service. All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to support the programs of the 506th Airborne Infantry Regiment Association, a nonprofit veterans organization which strongly supports active duty soldiers.