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Post-Action Review (AAR) Template

The structured debrief that runs after every action (and at the end of every campaign phase). It captures: what was supposed to happen, what actually happened, why the gap, and what the campaign will change because of what it learned. The discipline is debrief-driven learning: every AAR updates the action plan or the campaign plan behind it, so the next cycle starts from the updated playbook rather than from scratch.

For the method, see after-action-review. For the per-event worksheet that this debriefs, see action-planning-template.

Frontmatter (copy verbatim)

---
title: AAR — <ACTION / PHASE NAME> (<DATE>)
status: stub
languages: [EN]
categories: [training, tactics]
license: link-only
updated: 2026-MM-DD
template_for: after-action-review
---

1. Headline

  • Action / phase debriefed: <name + date>
  • Facilitator:
  • Attendees: <names + roles>
  • Time: <start — end>
  • One-sentence summary:

2. What was supposed to happen

  • Plan (the action plan / phase plan):
  • Success criteria (the specific numbers / outcomes we said we’d hit):
  • Decision rules we set (the “if X, then Y” branches):

3. What actually happened

  • What worked (the specific things that went better than expected):
  • What didn’t (the specific things that went worse):
  • What surprised us (the things we didn’t predict):

4. Why the gap (the diagnosis)

For each of the 2-3 biggest gaps between plan and reality:

  • Gap:
  • Cause we now believe (the best current explanation):
  • How we’d test that belief (the next experiment to disconfirm or confirm):
  • Confidence in the diagnosis (low / medium / high):

5. What we change because of what we learned

  • Action plan / campaign plan update (the specific lines that change):
  • Decision rule updates (the “if X, then Y” branches that need to be added or changed):
  • Coalition updates (what we tell partners):
  • Things we’re NOT changing (the disciplined “no” — the things we tested and won’t re-litigate):

6. Open questions for the next cycle

  • <question 1> — who will investigate by when — what decision will it unlock>
  • <question 2> — who will investigate by when — what decision will it unlock>
  • <question 3> — who will investigate by when — what decision will it unlock>

7. The discipline check

  • The AAR was run within 72 hours of the action
  • At least 3 of the attendees were on the action team (not just staff)
  • At least 2 of the gaps have a written diagnosis (not just an observation)
  • The “what we change” section has at least one specific change to the action plan or campaign plan
  • The AAR is filed in the team’s shared drive / wiki with a clear path back to the plan it updates