Why You Shouldn't Skip Debriefs

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Debriefs aren’t just for fighter pilots and battlefield soldiers. Despite the common belief that corporate teams don’t need to debrief, leading academic research shows otherwise.

According to a meta-analysis by Dr. Scott Tannenbaum and Dr. Chris Cerasoli, even rudimentary debriefs can boost team effectiveness by an average of 23%, while structured debriefs can enhance it by 38%. Adding a third-party facilitator can increase effectiveness by an additional 27%.

Debriefing’s Impact on Corporate Performance

So, what can debrief meetings do for your organization? Consider this: only 33% of corporate America’s projects are completed on time, within scope, and on budget, according to Harvard Business Review. Even if your company is above average and completes 60% of its projects successfully, there’s still room for improvement.

Let’s assume your team improves by 5% each time they tackle a project together without debriefing. After three iterations, your team’s success rate would be 64%. Not bad, but imagine the potential if you incorporated structured, third-party-facilitated debriefs. This approach could elevate your team’s effectiveness by 25% after three project iterations, achieving an 85% success rate.

The team that conducts structured, 3rd party-facilitated Debriefs is 25% more effective after three project iterations together and enjoys an 85% success rate by their third Mission. Stop and look at those numbers again – what would that level of improvement mean for your team performance, your organizational culture, or your company in general?

Real-World Success Stories

Our team at Afterburner has seen these statistics play out in real life. For instance, we supported over 50 missions for a tech giant in Silicon Valley using the Plan-Brief-Execute-Debrief model, achieving a 91% success rate. This isn’t just theory—it’s a proven strategy that delivers results.

In our two decades of team building consulting, we’ve asked over 3 million people at more than 5,000 client companies to rate their commitment to debriefing. On a scale of 1 to 10, corporate America rates itself around a 3. This suggests that few companies debrief effectively, if at all. The lack of awareness about the impact of debriefing could be a significant barrier.