After the holiday’s madness subsides, there comes a time when you can finally take a (short) breather and evaluate all of what actually happened and what to take away from it.
But first things first. Please, don’t call any recap meeting a “post-mortem” after all the work that just got done. This just gets everybody ready for a beat down and virtually guarantees that all involved will be more worried about getting a blame laid at their feet rather than actually getting any insight out of it.
Now, let’s take a closer look.
- Where did your plans work out as expected? Be specific and then look back and see where your group’s pre-planning saw these things coming and properly anticipated them. Remember that process because if you can use it again, you should. Starting off with a pat on the back (where deserved) is a good way to get moving and get folks excited about what can be reused for the coming year.
- What surprises did you have? Name them all, good and bad. Now look deeper and see why you got blind-sided by these events, situations, etc. What can you do to look out for signs of upcoming surprises this year? Hind sight is 20/20 and what we see after the fact sometimes makes us smack ourselves on the forehead and wonder why we didn’t see it coming. Try and classify these surprises according to perceived cause and look at those broad areas again to improve your chances of being as prepared as possible.
- Get all of your findings organized in a way that you can come back to it later and integrate them into this year’s plan. If you don’t do it now, you’ll forget what all was said and perhaps lose valuable insights
Get your forensics done as soon as you can after all of the action because it’s never too late to start planning for Holiday 2015.