Leveraging Learning Out of a Crisis: Focused Journaling as a Precursor to Debriefing

This paper proposes a process that can be applied before, during and after a crisis through the use of an organizational messaging app in order to make certain that a district’s strategic governance team (senior district leadership and elected board members) assesses what has been learned and applies those learnings for the benefit of the team and the district as a whole. A model for how to broach the idea of a reflective and collaborative digital forum and consensually move it forward is presented. An example of one possible approach that includes specific folders for reflections, new ideas and personnel follows.

The article then discusses research on human memory and what can be learned from public health research concerning administrative communication during a crisis. It follows with a preparatory activity using the model for a post crisis debrief with an eye towards takeaways and lessons learned that compel new actions or investigations.

The paper concludes that the proposed model can help leaders recognize and understand organizational cultural shifts, get ahead of them and give leaders a different lens through which to understand what really drives the people on their teams as individuals and the thinking that fortifies their guiding principles.