Feb. 2006 Members Podcast - The Hot Wash
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In this show, we're going to talk about the simplest, most elegant tool we know of to make something you do at work more efficient and more effective.
Once we explain it, you'll get it, and you'll be able to do it. It blows away two of our favorite tool criteria, effectiveness and efficiency. It works; that is, you'll get notable change out of this tool. So that makes it effective. And, it's terribly fast, without ANY fanfare or paperwork or staffing, so that makes it efficient as well. We like ANYTHING that is both effective and efficient.
The tool's nickname is "The Hot Wash". Its more formal name is Running an After Action Session.
Before we get into it, a note about nomenclature. We're going to call this tool the Hot Wash, and here's why. First, it's catchy. It has some emotional power that "Running An After Action Session" just doesn't. Hot Wash sounds cool, folks, and we're all about cool here. Okay, we're not really all about cool, but the point is, names matter. One on ones as a title works because people long to connect on a personal level, one to one. We're looking for a better name for the feedback model, in fact, just for this reason. We used to like the IMPERSONALITY of it, frankly, but we're re-thinking that. Hot Wash will excite your people a bit.
What's more, it will reinforce that the tool you're using will be relatively painless, short and sweet. No graphs, no charts, no dog and pony. "We're gonna meet, talk about how things went, and see what to keep and what to make better next time. Nothing fancy. Hot Wash."
As well, After Action processes can be a LOT more complicated. We'll do a show at some point about a really in depth effort that will impress the heck out of you, and we may ask some professional colleagues to be involved. Basically, we're stealing a core part of the larger and revered After Action Process. We know most of you won't ever use the larger process... but that doesn't mean you can't get a ton out of a Hot Wash. A Ton!
One final point about the name. We haven't been able to verify this. We believe the reason it's called Hot Wash comes from the Army. I think it's because a quick way to clean a rifle or other small weapon is to douse it in boiling hot water. It's not a complete cleaning -- a soldier still has to break down the weapon and get into the details. But it serves a valuable, immediate purpose by getting at the big stuff in a split second.
And how many other things do you do at work that get at the big stuff in a split second (besides some of the rest of Manager Tools?) One more thing: You're gonna love it.
We also promised during the show that we'd share a sample email you can use to invite folks to your first Hot Wash. As promised, here it is ...
Sample Email "Say It" Text
Team Member:
On this next [quarterly design offsite], we're going to include a step called a Hot Wash. It's a really good way for us to quickly capture ways to improve how we do our work. It's sort of like an After Action Review, if you've ever done one of those, but it's not that formal, and it only takes about 30 minutes.
What it means is that as we go through all the [phases , planning, work] of this [project , process, meeting, event, change], I'd like you to keep an extra few brain cells available to think about how we're doing it. Look at things and ask if there's a better way. Ask yourself what we take for granted. What might be easy to change, what would make a big difference, etc. If you're spending 30 minutes a day or even a week on this, that's too much. It's more just paying attention, and being aware.
When we're done, we're all going to get together. Some will video conference, some audio, if you can't get here. And, we're going to do a fast and furious sort-of brainstorming session, asking "What Went Well?" and what do we need to "Take a Look At"?
It will only take about [30 minutes, an hour], and we'll capture everybody's ideas on a flip chart or wall so we can all see them and think about the ideas together. Hopefully, we'll see some things we can improve for next time.
My role will be to remind and encourage everyone to pay attention and be aware, and also I'll be making my own suggestions about t hings we can do better - and surely some of the improvements we make will be ME getting better. Believe me, I'm fair game.
Looking forward to sharing ideas and getting better,
Manager.
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WWW: a fresh air in plus and delta
WWW:
a fresh air in plus and delta field and annoying retrospective analysis
TALA:
really hard to follow. I am not Piergiorgio but from Italy too....
May I suggest a HOT DRY ? Share the results of the Hot wash with upper management: it will increase the confidence in your managerial skills and project mgmt and hopefully your success
Regards,
Bilbo
Bilbo- THanks for the
Bilbo-
THanks for the feedback!
It's a privilege to serve you.
Mark
Where is the RSS feed for the
Where is the RSS feed for the Members-Only podcasts? I only see a feed for the main podcast.
Tom, Good question! Until
Tom,
Good question! Until yesterday, it didn't exist -- one had to come to the website and download the members-only casts. Inconvienent, I know. :-(
Good news is that we've created one ... I'll post it in the members-only section shortly.
thanks,
Mike
Thanks. I have the podcast feed
Thanks. I have the podcast feed now.
About this podcast, I was wondering if any listeners use the project management discipline called "Scrum" (For those who do not know what Scrum is, it is a simple form of agile software development featuring month-long development cycles). When I hear about "hot wash", I immediately thought of the part of Scrum called the "retrospective meeting". At the end of each development cycle, we do brainstorm-syle meeting to talk about what works and what doesn't in our project. I like the format and guidelines Mark gave for doing the hot wash, and I think it will improve our Scrum process when we do our monthly retrospective meetings.
I would love to hear from other "ScrumMasters" out there, and if they are applying hot wash, www/tala, or any other manager tools techniques to their Scrum process.
-Tom
Tom- Of course I'm not a techie, so
Tom-
Of course I'm not a techie, so I'm only tangentially aware of agile development processes. So, I haven't heard of scrum.
I look forward, though, to hearing how our stuff helps you become more effective.
Mark
During the podcast I beleive that there
During the podcast I beleive that there was a mention that there would be a detailed explanation of how the Hotwash process works. There were mentions of red squares and pink circles. I haven't been able to find the additional information on the website.
David- The information we cited in
David-
The information we cited in the cast are right above the comments on this page. I missed it too... kept looking for it to be separate somehow.
I just relistened to the entire cast for you, and alas, the red squares comment was simply an analogy. We suggested that if you tell your team to look for something specific (red squares), they will see those things more easily, but at the same time that one ought not to tell them to ignore some stuff (blue circles).
Sorry, but there's no magic there.
Glad you're a listener!
Mark
Hi guys, tuesday I had my first hot
Hi guys,
tuesday I had my first hot wash meeting, at the end of Phase I of a project (direct data research about 150 firms), before the beginning of Phase II (writing some essays about it for a magazine).
I had announced it to my two colleagues more or less a week before.
It really worked well: I prepared myself with two or three things that I tought went well o that we should take a look at. The email was very useful, because my two colleagues talked about many points which I didn't think about (also because it was about their activity and some contact with the customer, which I didn't follow directly). They really prepared themselves, and we often have meetings where the youngest people don't say anything at all.
I wrote at least ten or twelve elements (WWW or TALA) and made many logical links between the two.
Definitely something useful: now I have a big sheet of paper and must decide the priorities for the next project like this.
Just wondering: should I send an e-mail now with the results of this meeting or should I wait for the second hot wash (when we finish the whole project) to join togheter the results of both the sessions?
I suspect it's better if I do it now.
Go on like this, Mark and Mike!
Oliviero
P.S.: I was almost forgetting: write the book, please!
Oliveiro- DEFINITELY send out the
Oliveiro-
DEFINITELY send out the notes, right away, in this situation. GREAT feedback that their comments were heard... will increase their participation next time.
Glad it went well!
Mark
[...] Aber vorgestern kam dann
[...] Aber vorgestern kam dann überraschenderweise noch eine Mail von Mike, der mich auf einen Podcast zum Thema “Hot Wash” hinwies, einem Projekt-Evaluierungsmeeting, das die beiden empfehlen. Der Podcast stehe nur registrierten Nutzer offen, aber die Registrierung sei kostenlos. [...]
yes, "hot wash" is a common US military
yes, "hot wash" is a common US military term, esp. the army (see http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/hot_wash/ and
http://www.dangerouslogic.com/archive/000346.html) though also used by NASA (http://dart2.arc.nasa.gov/Exercises/Ex-98/DARTExercise98HotWash/ex98HotW...) and others...
Hi, Wanted to ask if we can have
Hi,
Wanted to ask if we can have access to an Action Plan template which captures the actions to be done emerging from a "hotwash" session. I will be implementing this concept in the next couple of weeks. Thought of asking in advance.
MANY THANKS for the GREAT Work!
Regards
Chetan
Chetan- Thanks for the kind
Chetan-
Thanks for the kind words.
We do have a Hot Wash action step cast, but it doesn't include a template, so much as it leverages "who's going to do what by when?"
Mark
Mark definitely sounds like a High
Mark definitely sounds like a High “I†on this one. Thank you for the great information and resource.
Maybe I'm just too new to podcasts, but
Maybe I'm just too new to podcasts, but after *several* loong minutes of choppy chat (during which i did other things), it finally got down to the meat of the topic, still a little too chatty, sales-like. I don't have time or patience to listen to radio at work, need to get more directly on topic sooner in the cast! Perhaps you can break it into two podcasts - "Why do Hot Washes?" and "Having a Successful Hot Wash"
Perhaps we could. Thanks for the
Perhaps we could. Thanks for the comments.
Mark
I'm a project manager and just
I'm a project manager and just conducted my first Hot Wash at the end of a year long project. The WWW/TALA concept worked great. I got a lot of suggestions for both categories. I will definitely be doing more of these on future projects.
Jeremy
Jeremy- Well done you! The credit
Jeremy-
Well done you! The credit always goes to the one in the ring.
Cheers,
Mark
Hot WHAT?!
I'm doing my first Hot Wash today (I'm listening to all the podcasts from the beginning.) The name did not engender the kind of excitement I had hoped. In fact it has become kind of a joke. At least it has people talking. I'll be interested to see if it catches on after today.
Thanks for the education!
Keith
did a google search on www/tala....
...and I was amused to find that result #3 was this link:
http://www.noyelling.net/rehersals-debriefs.html
...taken from Marine Corps leadership theory. :-) If everyone who went through the miliary "machine" turned out more like Mike and Mark and less like hawks, this world would be an extremely effective place, indeed.
Andrea
------------------------------------------------------------------
....making my way through product management and self-management of my "ready, aim . . . aim . . . *SHINY!!!* . . . aim . . ." tendencies
Remote Employees and the Hot Wash
Hi guys,
I have been doing the Hot Wash approach for a while now, both myself and the teams I've facilitated found them (in the feedback I've gotten) very effective and fun. Keep up the great work.
One item I have struggled with is how to manage remote employees in these meetings. We sometimes are not able to fly everyone to the same place for hot washes, so what do you advise is the most effective way to manage their engagement? Is it any different or is it just a conference call?
Specific examples....
Thanks a lot. I don't think I've missed a podcast and I recommend you to everyone I think wants to be more effective.
Cheers,
Tom