Resilience Enhanced aFteR ACTiOn ReviewS (REFRACTORS) for teams: a pilot, nonrandomized investigation of feasibility within military settings

Most existing guidelines for team resilience development offer an incomplete perspective from which to translate theory into practice because they rely on a “one-size-fits-all” approach that assumes specific capacities and strategies work well for all teams and which are often decontextualized from the defining feature of resilience.We propose an alternative yet complementary approach that combines theory and practice on team resilience, event systems, emergence, and team metacognition. The essence of our resilience enhanced after action reviews protocol is reflected in the acronym “STOP then Resource,” in which teams contextualize their reflection process to salient Stressors and their Temporal elements; an Overview of the unfolding dynamics of the events, including Perceived or actual impact; and lessons learned regarding Resources required to optimize resilient outcomes. We report a pilot, nonrandomized process evaluation of resilience enhanced after action reviews for teams within a military setting with 17 male team leaders (7 lance corporals, 10 corporals), who were participating in an Army training exercise. Our findings suggest that the resilience enhanced reflection protocol is feasible and acceptable to participants yet requires enhancements for future applications to maximize uptake and usefulness (e.g., target junior leaders and newly formed teams, integration within existing organizational practices). Future work is required to examine the efficacy and effectiveness of this new approach to conducting after action reviews, alongside protocol usability, salient contextual factors, and applicability for teams across organizational settings to shed light on avenues for adapting the approach to maximize uptake and engagement.