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In my management work and personal growth over the years, "review" is one of the tools that has benefited me the most. In the busy days and nights, those who never look back to see themselves and their peers in the workplace may even lose the most basic sense of direction, that is, whether the road ahead is correct.

Mencius said, "A benevolent person is like an archer." This means that an archer should get into position and shoot the arrow. If he fails to hit the target, he should not blame the objective reasons, but should learn from the experience. Therefore, reviewing should become a habit. Xunzi also said in "Encouragement to Study": A gentleman is knowledgeable and examines himself every day, so he will know clearly and will not make mistakes. This means that we should learn to review.

The word "replay" originated from chess terminology, also known as "replaying a game", which refers to replaying the record of a game after it is over to check the strengths and weaknesses of the players and the key gains and losses in the game. "Replaying the game" every day and rehearsing according to the game record can effectively deepen the impression of the game and find loopholes in the offense and defense of both sides.

Reviewing games is considered the most important way for Go players to improve their skills, especially when playing against high-level players. Through other people's perspectives, they can see where their own thinking is lacking, and thus use other people's experience for their own benefit. The training method for Go players is very simple: keep playing chess and reviewing games, day after day, year after year. It is the most monotonous method, but also the most effective.

In layman's terms, reviewing a game means repeating the process of "moving" at that time many times, and actively thinking about why you "moved" in that way, how to design the next step, and how to make the next few steps. From the perspective of chess formation, reviewing a game is a combination of offense and defense. From the perspective of psychological warfare, it can better compare the psychological thinking of both sides and finally summarize the so-called "routine". When the "routine" is familiar to the heart, it will naturally reach the level of a master.

Just as you can review chess, so can business models and personal management. The difference lies in the mindset and vision. Reviewing is a common tool that can be applied to almost any medium related to any person or event.

It is different from summarizing, it needs to be depersonalized, completely return to the original state of the object, dissect all the links related to it, recall and analyze one by one, and finally get a better possibility. In summary, the key to reviewing is timeliness, rapidity, effectiveness and repetition.

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Why review?

Of course, there are many business elites who do not use this methodology. It does not mean that you cannot succeed without reviewing. I just want to emphasize one point: there is no loss in reviewing, and you can always give feedback on the current situation, so that the next "better" will not pass you by. Reviewing is sometimes a cruel process of self-dissection for all individuals involved.

The benefits of review can be summarized as follows:

1) Don’t fall into the same pit and avoid making the same mistakes repeatedly;

Although it is impossible to achieve 100% perfection in every practice, when reviewing, we know where we did not do well, whether the reason is objective or subjective. If we can find some pitfalls that we did not notice before, it will be a great gain for us.

The first level of the goal of review is to avoid making the same mistake again. Tactical leak detection and filling gaps are affected by historical and environmental factors and are not easy to simply copy. However, with the strategic upgrade, repeated tactical mistakes can be reduced or even eliminated.

2) Know the strengths and weaknesses of the team and divide the work reasonably;

What are we reviewing? Actually, it is about people and things. Both are indispensable.

Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. If the division of labor is reasonable, the long-board effect will be more prominent. On the contrary, the harm of the short-board effect is also obvious to all. The second level of the goal pursued by the review is to understand everyone in the team and achieve a reasonable division of labor. The ultimate goal is not to restrain each other, but to integrate and promote each other.

3) Know yourself and your enemy, and hone your inner self;

Reviewing the ins and outs of an event is like playing a game of chess, both sides are competing with each other in wits and courage. The psychological growth and tempering of oneself in the process is the third level goal of reviewing, and it is also the biggest gain for individuals and teams in the process.

4) Knowing how to be better is all about details;

In the whole process, there are various subtle links, which are closely linked and ultimately lead to the result. Therefore, the process of reviewing is also the process of exposing the details again. Only by knowing which areas may be better can we iterate and upgrade in the next practice.

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Four steps to review:

The first step is to review the goal: what was the original purpose or expectation?

The second step is to evaluate the results: what are the highlights and shortcomings compared with the original goals;

The third step is to analyze the reasons: the root causes of success and failure, including both subjective and objective aspects;

The fourth step is to summarize the experience: which new initiatives need to be implemented, which measures need to be continued, and which projects need to be stopped.

The above four steps can also be divided into eight specific processes:

1) Review the goal: Review the goal of the event. It is a common mistake to treat the means as the goal. When reviewing the goal, it is necessary to write the goal clearly and explicitly somewhere to prevent the people involved in the review from deviating from the goal midway.

2) Result comparison: There are four possible situations when comparing the result with the target:

The results are consistent with the goals and the set goals are achieved;

The results exceeded the goals and the completion was better than expected;

The results were below target and the performance was worse than expected;

In the process of doing things, new items that were not expected were added.

The purpose of comparing results is not to find gaps, but to find problems.

3) Narration process: The purpose of process narration is to let all review participants know the process of the event, so that everyone has a basis for common discussion and does not waste time on the information level.

4) Self-analysis: When doing self-analysis, you should be objective and ruthless to yourself. Self-analysis is to identify the controllable factors of the matter and figure out whether the problem is caused by the department you control or other parts.

5) Ask questions from the perspective of the public: Ask questions from the perspective of the public, so as to break through the limitations of personal knowledge. Ask questions to explore multiple possibilities and their boundaries.

6) Summarize the rules: Time is the only criterion for testing whether the rules are correct or not. Generally speaking, the reliability of the conclusions drawn from the review can be judged by three principles:

Did the conclusion come from an accidental event? If the conclusion of the review comes from an accidental factor, it must be wrong. If the review does not go into the logical level and is not verified by logic, the result must be unreliable.

Is the conclusion of the review directed at people or things? If the conclusion is directed at people, it means that the review is not in place. The purpose of review is to summarize objective laws, and people are variables. If it is directed at things, the possibility of reviewing the laws is higher. The conclusion of the review is to understand and analyze from the essence of things, which is one of the criteria for verifying whether the conclusion of the review is reliable.

Is the conclusion drawn through cross-validation? "A single piece of evidence cannot determine a case" is a legal term used to describe the conclusion drawn through cross-validation of other things, which can also provide a certain guarantee for the validity of the conclusion.

7) Case evidence: Self-analysis is to reflect and think about what you have done. Self-analysis is an opportunity for self-growth.

8) Review and archive: The conclusions drawn after the above seven steps of review have a high degree of credibility. These are the concepts and rules that have been recognized and are worth spreading. It is necessary to review and archive them, and turn these understandings into knowledge for easy dissemination and reference. Good experience can help people avoid detours and work more smoothly. 

Of course, this is the most complete step. When reviewing the specific situation, you do not have to follow this step and can adjust it at your own discretion.