Racing Ahead with After Action Reviews – with Rob Smedley

September 30, 2022

Racing Ahead with After Action Reviews – with Rob Smedley

Rob Smedley, CEO and Founder of Smedley Group, joins me to explore After Action Reviews (AARs) as a tool for driving positive change.

We delve into a lot more than AARs though, as Rob has built his company around a very clear mission that is about disrupting the motorsport industry.

He is also taking the lead in the business by very intentionally creating a team that can develop, innovate, and perform at the same high standards that he is used to from Formula 1. His focus on building the culture, behaviours and expectations that are necessary to succeed in business today are what drove Rob to engage with the AAR process.

When we hit ‘pause’ and ask the right questions, we are able to highlight strengths and find out what can be done differently next time to make the experience more positive and make it easier to engage and perform.

Yet, in many organisations, people feel the need to cover their back and find who’s to blame when things don’t go as well as they could, rather than focus on the learning. An After Action Review, within a climate of psychological safety, provides huge insight that is directly relevant to drive positive change.

Rob shares how the AAR has impacted on practice. He has found the process so valuable that an interim AAR is on the cards; why wait until the end of a project to review it?

More about Rob

Rob Smedley has over 20 years of experience in the world of motorsport, having spent time at multiple F1 teams including Jordan, as a Race Engineer at Ferrari and as Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams before taking on the Director of Data systems at Formula 1 from 2019 to 2021. He now works with some of the world’s leading technology brands helping them deliver solutions as well as running his own advanced technology and motorsport business. In between times he acts as a consultant to F1 helping them shape their technical roadmap.