I talk about Backbriefing a lot in conference presentations and will have mentioned it in a number of blog posts. In particular I put together a Backbriefing A3. However, I don’t think I’ve ever really described what I mean by backbriefing or what it involves. Time to rectify that.
Background
I first learned about backbriefing in Stephen Bungay’s book The Art of Action where he talks about it as part of Directed Opportunism. It is an approach to close what Bungay calls the Alignment Gap between Plans and Actions. This is where there is a difference between what a plan suggests people should do, and what they actually do. Rather than creating more detailed plans with more detailed instructions, Bungay suggests instead to allow people to create and implement their own plans to meet an intent, and to check for alignment with a backbrief.
Thus backbriefing is a process with which people can check their understanding of the intent of their work and whether their plans will meet that intent.
Process
Typically this involve 3 steps:
- The brief – the initial description of the work. Leadership briefs the group being asked to carry it out, not in terms of a plan but in terms of the intent, such as what goals and aspirations are. Thus the brief describes the problem statement.
- The backbrief – a replay of the understanding of the work. The group briefs back to the leadership what they heard, including their plans for how they will carry it out. Thus the backbrief re-describes the problem statement along with an initial solution.
- Feedback and adjustment – a review to clarify the work. Together everyone revises the articulation of the intent and the work. This could be due to misunderstandings in communication, or to take into account new information learned from the backbrief. Thus the feedback and adjustment refines both the brief and the backbrief.
Practice
The A3 template I created is the way I do backbriefing in practice where it is used primarily for steps 2 and 3 above. The various sections cover the understanding of the brief (Context, Intent and Higher Intent) as well as the initial proposal for carrying out the brief (Team, Boundaries, Plans). As the A3 is populated and reviewed, its can be updated to deflect any feedback and adjustment.
In the context of the X-Matrix, I like to start with backbriefing for the initial set of Tactics, where teams are given a Tactic as their brief and use the Backbriefing A3 to create understanding and alignment around what they are being asked to work on. This then becomes part of the Catchball process to translate the organisational strategy into the daily tactical work.
Postscript: I have followed up this post with another one on Backbriefing and the Curse of Knowledge.
Interesting, that might fit into a jigsaw I’m doing: one of points I’m making in my talks ons on OKRs (and in the book, can I plug my book?) is that OKRs should be set Bottom-Up.
The leaders job is first to outline the destination, decide the mission, make sure eveyone understand the purpose of the organization.
It is then up to the teams to respond: how can this team move towards those aims? – this team with the unique resoiurces in it pocession, with the products it builds and the services it offers. The OKRs form an API between the leaders and the teams.
(The leaders second job is then to support the teams)
Maybe backbriefing could fit in there? – the teams listen to the leaders and than backbrief, either as a prelude to setting their OKRs or with OKRs
I can imagine using OKRs in a similar way to the way I use the A3, or make OKRs part of the A3, so that the backbrief describes the understanding of intent in terms of the Objective and the plan in terms of the Key Results.