Navy SEAL After Action Reviews

Welcome to a revamped Elite Team Tactics.

Thank you for your feedback last week. We have streamlined the format, keeping the three sections that you voted for the most:

✍️ Coming up in today’s edition:

1. One quick win: The CIA motivation formula to use with your team

2. One proven system: Navy SEAL After-Action-Reviews

3. One million-dollar question: Must-ask questions when hiring senior talent

Let’s dive in.

1. TRY THIS EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION FORMULA FROM THE CIA

Andrew Bustamante is a former covert CIA intelligence officer and US Air Force combat veteran.

He lived as an undercover spy for seven years and explains the 4 core human motivations to influence anybody’s behaviour on The Diary of a CEO hosted by a good friend of ETT, Steven Bartlett:

@steven

Why do people act the way they do??? #cia #relationships #friendship #ego #society

Applying this to a work context is very interesting.

Every leader wants to influence and inspire their people in the right way.

So we’ve broken down Andrew’s RICE acronym and reordered each section into what method is the most impactful:

1. Ideology: we are most influenced to act by the the things that we believe in e.g. religion, family, health, morals, sports club affiliations etc

2. Ego: we are second most likely to act based on how we view ourselves or want others to view us which is why promotions at work matter so much to people (this doesn’t always have to be in a negative, selfish way e.g. Mother Teresa wanted to be viewed in an altruistic manner, hence her actions followed to match)

3. Reward: the short dopamine hits we get from money, sex, alcohol and drugs can be very influential when shaping our behaviour and how we act (most employers will focus on pay and remuneration to get people to influence behaviour but interestingly this is only 3rd on the list)

4. Coercion: this is the most manipulative method to influence behaviour and should be avoided at all costs e.g. using guilt, shame, blackmail and other negative coercion tactics

Surprisingly “reward” is third. Have a think this week about how you can lean into the first two more - Ideology and Ego - when communicating with your team.

2. NAVY SEALS AFTER-ACTION-REVIEWS

Following every mission, the Navy SEALs complete what’s called an After-Action-Action Review (ARR).

This methodology was developed by the United States Army in the 1970s to help its soldiers learn from their mistakes and achievements.

Behavioural scientists Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats performed an experiment which confirmed the significant benefit of ARRs to team performance.

In the experiment, one training group spent the last 15 minutes of the day reflecting on their work, whereas the second group continued to work right up until the end of the day.

The reflective group performed 20% better on the skills test.

So how can you implement the ARR in your team today?

Follow this 3-step structure:

Step 1: What went well

It is within our human nature to focus on the negative. But this doesn’t serve us well.

Successful people focus on what is going right.

So ask the group:

“What learning did we gain from what went well that we can repeat again?”

Step 2: What didn’t go well

It is important to leave blame culture at the door and focus on specific, tangible, new learnings that everyone can incorporate for the future.

Constructive criticism is the lifeblood of progress.

This can be very difficult to hear at the start but as soon as you do this process a couple of times, you very quickly lose that sinking feeling in your stomach when someone offers a critque.

Step 3: What are we going to do differently next time

Once you have completed step 1 and 2, it is important to focus on what tangible changes you can make to your processes to systemically improve your output as a team.

This section has been so useful for our own teams. Here are a few of our improvements as a result of this process:

• We now complete double the volume of practise pitch run-throughs

• Everyone adds an extra 30 minutes to the meeting room booking for external client sessions in case the conversation runs over, so we now don’t have to rush everyone out

• We’ve just implemented a new AI software called Fathom to track the amount we talk on calls and increase the amount of questions we ask

Set the new standards then develop a clear, documented system for all team members to follow.

House the learnings somewhere digitally so you have a historical log and can start to see commonalities and consistent ways to level up across different projects and areas of the business.

We created an excel template of the ARR so please reply to this email with “ARR” if you’d like a copy 🤝

Some of the highest-performing teams will run a similar process but before the actual project takes place. Here are the questions to ask:

• What are our intended results?

• What challenges can we anticipate?

• What have we or others learned from similar situations?

• What will make us successful this time?

Give it a whirl and let us know how you get on.

3. DO NOT HIRE SENIOR TALENT WITHOUT ASKING THESE QUESTIONS

Hiring a senior team member can make or break your business.

According to CBS News, replacing an executive-level employee can cost companies an average of 213% of their annual salary.

I’ve seen this first hand destroy startups.

So what process should you follow when making a senior hire?

Experienced talent has been around the block so you are more likely to receive a bank of strong, rehearsed answers to your interview questions.

Don’t worry, we got you. Try this instead:

Ask them for 3x references.

Then ask each reference the following questions:

• What's the most challenging conversation you've had with [candidate]?

• How does [candidate] rank on X attribute?

• Are they top 3 you’ve ever worked with? Top 5? 10?

  • Then flip and ask what are they top 5 at?

  • What are they in the lower 25% at?

• If this person left to start a company, would you invest?

• What’s one thing you wish I asked you about [candidate]?

If there is a specific concern after this process then pay attention to the employers they didn’t refer you to…

There will likely be one or two companies that haven’t been selected that are still listed on their CV or LinkedIn profile.

Use your network to get a warm intro to at least one of those companies.

Replicate the questions above.

Good luck!

LINKS OF THE WEEK 🔗

For your productivity:

• OpenAI is launching an alternative to Google Search (Link)

• Tutorial on how to get the most out of the ChatGPT-4o release (Link)

For your team:

• The viral LinkedIn post about leadership from the Ex-CEO of Starbucks (Link)

• How ex-Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger won the culture war (Link)

• The most important things to consider before hiring remote workers (Link)

For your health:

• Keith Crossley’s ultimate morning meditation routine (Link)

• Add this nutrient to your diet to reduce brain fog and improve concentration (Link)

See you next week 👋