AARDVARK Report - October 2026

AARDVARK Report – October 2026

THIS MONTH: THE DEBRIEF CLOSES THE LOOP

The mission doesn't end when the operation does. The teams that keep getting better are the ones that stop and ask what actually happened, what they missed and what they'll do differently next time.

This month, we're looking at how honest debriefs turn experience into better decisions, with a practical how-to drawn from the Culture First Implementation System and a Police1 look at after-action reviews. We're also featuring the 2B-LW Lightweight Acoustic Hailing Speaker Kit and our CEO Jon Becker's keynote at CNT 2026.

This Month's Featured Product

2B Lightweight Acoustic Hailing Speaker Kit

Why it matters: A complete kit, from the unit to the tripod to the road case, gives teams a clear, commanding voice at stand-off distance.

Special Announcement

Jon Becker Takes the Stage

Selected by NTOA to headline CNT 2026

From tactical innovation to transformational leadership, AARDVARK founder and CEO Jon B. Becker knows what it takes to build elite teams. NTOA has selected Jon to deliver the keynote at CNT 2026.

Jon is the author of Culture First and host of The Debrief with Jon Becker. Having spent his career working alongside elite tactical teams while also building two successful brands, he brings a unique perspective on leadership, organizational culture and lessons learned from the field.

When: October 26–29, 2026

Where: Chandler, AZ

Spotlight On: Leadership

Culture First + the Implementation Guide: Read It, Then Run It

With the release of the Culture First Implementation System, the #1 bestselling Culture First: 9 Leadership Practices That Build Elite Teams now has a companion built to put it to work. Jon B. Becker's book distills a career spent embedded with elite tactical and law enforcement units into nine leadership practices. The new guide helps you use those practices to assess your own team and your own leadership.

Start With the Book – Culture First introduces the nine practices and the thinking behind what makes elite teams perform.

Assess With the Guide – Step-by-step exercises and built-in checkpoints help you see where your team and your leadership stand on each practice, and track progress as it takes hold.

Better Together – The book gives you the practices. The guide gives you a way to measure and apply them, so you can stop managing performance and start building a team that performs because it believes in the mission.

Why now: The guide has just been released, so this is a great time to pick up both. Read the practices, then use the guide to assess your team against them.

How To: Run a Debrief That Improves the Team

Elite teams don't debrief to find out who made a mistake. They debrief to find out how accurately they read the situation, then improve whatever didn't match. This how-to is adapted from "The Debrief Closes the Loop," a chapter of the Culture First Implementation System, and draws on Gary Klein's cognitive debrief approach.

Step 1: Set the Ground Rules

• Draft three to five rules for your debriefs, such as "critique the process, not the person" and "focus on thinking, not just actions."
• Post them where everyone can see them and read them aloud at the start of every session.

Step 2: Ask What People Were Thinking

• Ask each participant what they were seeing or hearing, and what they expected to see or hear but didn't.
• Ask whether anything made them suspicious because it wasn't happening. How people sized up the situation matters as much as what they did.

Step 3: Focus on the Transitions

• Find the moments the situation changed. What cues signaled the change, and who saw them first?

Step 4: Capture the Learning

• Close with one question: what will we notice sooner next time?
• Record the answer and turn it into a documented change, not just a good conversation.

Watch Out For

• Sanitization: When honest debriefs can damage careers, hero stories replace the truth as they move up the organization. If the answer to "what went wrong?" is "nothing," treat it as a sign the learning has stopped.
• Punishment framing: A team that sees the debrief as punishment dreads it and finds ways to skip it.

Quick check: Do your debriefs...

• cover significant events, rather than moving straight to the next thing?
• follow posted ground rules that are actually followed?
• ask what people were seeing and thinking, not just what they did?
• produce documented changes?

If the answer is "no" or "partially" to more than one, this practice deserves your focused attention.

A debrief isn't for blame or paperwork. It's how a team reorients and improves future work.

The Lesson After the Lesson: How Better Debriefs Improve Police Performance

By Robert Graziano, Police1

Honest after-action reviews can turn experience into better decisions, stronger teams and better officers, in the training room and on the street.

A good outcome can hide a poor decision, and finishing a mission or scenario isn't the end of the learning. The author makes the case for debriefs across every area of policing and lays out a simple four-question framework for running them.

Source: Police1

Visit Us at an Upcoming Trade Show

IACP Annual Conference & Exposition

October 25-27, 2026

Orlando, FL

We will be in booth #683 (West Building). Come see us!

READY TO CLOSE THE LOOP?

Every event is a chance to get better, but only if the team takes the time to learn from it. Whether you're setting ground rules for your first debrief or adding to your next capability, AARDVARK can help you find the right fit for your team's operational requirements.

—The AARDVARK Team