Debriefing

Yesterday, the Lead Team for Men’s Ministry at our church had its December meeting and most of the discussion centered around ‘Debriefing’ the last quarter of events and practices.

So, what exactly is ‘debriefing” anyway?

When looking it up, a lot of other words and phrases show up. Reviewing, probing, interrogating, examining. This process can be eye opening and take a significant amount of planning and time to be done correctly. Too often my notes get ‘filed away’ in the ‘OK, that’s done’ file and I head out to continue what I’ve been doing all along. I might keep a reminder of a couple things I thought would be helpful on a sticky note somewhere, but it’s difficult to find the margin (space and time) to stop and look at ways to make some changes.

This, of course, begs the question, ‘Why’? Why take the time to debrief or review at all if I just chalk it up to another meeting and then return to things as usual?

My hard wiring lends itself to a ‘decide and do’ approach and then I’m on to the next challenge thing which can leave a lot of things and people hanging.

I believe we must go back to our mission, vision, goals, and objectives and ask how much we really value them. Do we really believe they are the foundation blocks of who we are and what we do? If so, do we have annual or quarterly, or post event debriefs as a stated part of our goals and objectives? That way it insures we’re staying in alignment with or projects/events and that we can intentionally address improvements.

This sets a solid strategical objective that’s tied more firmly to our principles and practices. It becomes something that everyone sees in black and white and it’s an expected ‘step’ in our event outcomes. .

The results will be ownership of the debrief process as integral to the actual event itself.

From ownership we build strategies and even policies for success together.