ICES Experimental Economics Brown Bag Lecture
The Relative Effects of Design Thinking Vs. After-action Review on Team Performance: An Experiential/Episodic Team Learning Perspective
Thursday, March 20, 2025 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EDT
Vernon Smith Hall (formerly Metropolitan Building), Room 5075
The Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) presents an ICES Brown Bag Lecture featuring:
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
The Relative Effects of Design Thinking Vs. After-action Review on Team Performance: An Experiential/Episodic Team Learning Perspective
Abstract
In an effort to extend experiential learning theory to the team level, we develop and test a model capturing and explaining the relative effects of two alternative team learning-based interventions, namely after-action reviews (AAR) and design thinking (DT; a team problem-solving approach which we argue can be repurposed as a team development intervention or TDI). Integrating experiential learning theory with research on episodic team learning, we propose that by engaging the team in a more comprehensive set of experiential learning elements in each performance episode, relative to AAR, DT drives enhanced normative and cognitive team emergent states and as a result, a greater short-term (i.e., 6-month) improvement in team performance, particularly for teams characterized by greater team task variety. Results from a multi-wave field experiment of teams in a manufacturing company largely support this model, and indicated that over the 6-month study period: (a) a DT intervention was associated with greater improvement in team performance than that associated with AAR, and (b) these effects are partially explained by differential changes in both team learning climate and transactive memory system specification. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
For more information about the Brown Bag Lectures, please visit the Brown Bag Schedule homepage.
