What is a Post Mortem?
A post mortem is a discussion that takes place after an event has occurred. A post mortem can take place at the end of a work day, the end of a meeting, or the end of a major project. The purpose of this discussion is to analyze and learn from the event. Carefully crafted questions help people reflect on and learn from the completed task.
Benefits of Post Mortems
Wide Variety of Situations
One benefit of the post mortem is that they can be applied in a wide variety of situations. They can range from a simple discussion at the end of a workday to a multi-day session held at the end of a long project.
Environment of Continuous Learning
An organization that promotes post mortems shows that it is committed to continuous learning. By holding a post mortem, the organization is modeling behavior that supports knowledge management. This can have a cascading effect on the culture of your organization and, by extension, the attitudes of employees.
Make Tacit Knowledge Explicit
Post mortems help to make tacit knowledge explicit by encouraging people to reflect on their thought processes and why they did what they did. The process of articulation helps individuals recognize their tacit knowledge and share it with others. In turn, by identifying and sharing this knowledge, we can capture it.
Increase Improvement
The informal nature of the post mortem allows individuals to share and contribute in a nonthreatening way. These processes are not meant to be linked to any performance reviews or assessment. Therefore, they become a forum for people to learn how to improve both individually and on an organizational level.
How to Conduct a Post Mortem
Here are some simple guidelines to follow when conducting a post mortem.
The Sooner the Better
Conduct your post mortem as soon as a task has been completed; the sooner the better. This helps to prevent people forgetting what has taken place. It also improves availability, since people often have not had time to move onto the next task.
Build Your Environment
A post mortem works best when it is held in an environment that promotes openness and honesty. Reassure participants that the comments they make will not be held against them and that these comments are for educational purposes only.
It may also be a good idea to set some guidelines or rules for how these sessions will be conducted. Members of the group should all feel comfortable in contributing their thoughts. A way to create this safe environment is to have some ground rules for your post mortem
sessions. These rules can be created by the group or established before the session takes place. Some sample ground rules could include:
- Everyone must contribute.
- No idea gets criticize, no matter how unconventional.
- Be considerate of those around you. Allow a person to finish their thought before jumping in.
- One person speaks at a time.
Having guidelines can help to create a safe environment without hampering the learning taking place. Additionally, if rules are not in place you may have outspoken group members taking over the session. If that happens, you may miss out on a fantastic piece of information that could make a future task much easier.
Have a Moderator
The role of the moderator is to monitor the climate of the environment, ensure that no one is being blamed, make sure the guidelines of the session are being followed, ensure everyone participates, and ask questions to stimulate deep thought and quality answers (which will help everyone get the most out of the session).
Make a Recording
When conducting a post mortem of a large project, it is best to record the session on video. This will allow you to review and refine the information presented in the session once the post mortem has ended.
Accentuate the Positive
Begin your session by bringing attention to the original goals of the task. What did we set out to do? How did we accomplish these goals? Encourage participants to celebrate the success of the initiative and to identify processes that may be worth replicating in the future.
Learn from Mistakes
Once you have identified the successes of your task, ask what went wrong. Could we have done something different to have a more desirable outcome? What might we do differently next time? Remind participants that the focus is on continuous improvement, not failure. The purpose of this activity is to learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating them in the future.
After the Post Mortem
Review and Refine Your Post Mortem
Using the recording of the session, review and refine the information presented, summarize it for others to review, and share it as appropriate. This will help reinforce lessons learned with those involved with the session and share the knowledge with others in the organization.
When refining the information, you should focus on the key points of the session and present the information in a logical way. Start with basic information like what the session was about, who was present, and when and where it took place. Then include the lessons you learned from the project, what actions you would repeat, and any other key points that need to be shared with your audience.
To guide you through this process, ask yourself, “What would I hope to learn from watching this post mortem?” This question will help you focus on what material to include in your presentation.
Share this Knowledge
Store the recording of the post mortem in a place that is easily accessible to others within the organization. Consider who else in the organization would benefit from this knowledge and encourage them to learn from your post mortem.