Peer Assist
A Peer Assist is a structured meeting held before or early in a piece of work, in which a team invites people from elsewhere who have done something similar to share what they learned. The method comes from BP, where it was part of the company's "learning before doing" approach. The visiting peers offer experience, options and insights, and the host team decides what to do with them.
Facilitation script
- 1
Welcome, purpose and introductions. State what the host team wants from the meeting and how the four parts will run. Make clear that visitors offer experience and options and the hosts decide.
20 min - 2
First quarter: the host team presents the context, its plan and its open questions. Visitors listen and note questions.
50 min - 3
Second quarter: visitors ask questions and say what surprised them, including what they expected to hear and did not.
50 min - 4
Break.
15 min - 5
Third quarter: visitors and hosts work through the visitors' experience together and build a list of options and insights on flip charts.
50 min - 6
Final quarter, first part: visitors agree and present their main feedback. The host team listens and asks clarifying questions only.
35 min - 7
Final quarter, second part: the host team states which points it will act on, who owns them and how it will report back to the visitors. Thank the visitors and close.
20 min
Tips
Hold it early enough that the host team can still change its plan; a Peer Assist after the key decisions are made is theatre.
Ask the hosts to keep their opening presentation short and to state plainly what they do not know, because visitors can only help with the gaps they are shown.
As facilitator, hold the hosts back from defending the plan during the visitors' feedback and get them to listen, note and ask clarifying questions only.
Common pitfalls
Holding it too late, so the visitors' experience arrives after the choices are made and nothing changes
A long host presentation that eats the first half, leaving visitors with too little time to question and contribute
Hosts defending the plan against every observation, which teaches the visitors to stop offering honest ones
Inviting by seniority or availability instead of relevant experience, so the room is full of opinions and short on first-hand knowledge
Ending without commitments from the host team, so the insights stay on the flip charts and the visitors never learn what came of them
Variations
Length scales with the complexity of the problem: sources describe anything from half a day to two days, and guidance on the number of visitors varies a little around six to eight. Run remotely, it works better as two or three shorter video sessions than as one long call, with the briefing pack read beforehand and a shared document for options. A lighter version for a single question inside one organisation can fit into two hours if the same four parts are kept. Record the options and the host team's commitments so that other teams facing the same task can use them later.
Where it fits
When to use it
A team is about to start something that another team, site or organisation has already been through
The plan exists in outline but the main decisions are still open and can be changed by what the team hears
The value of avoiding known mistakes clearly outweighs the cost of bringing people together for half a day or more
The team is facing a specific challenge where the experience of others would help more than further analysis of its own
An organisation wants experience to travel between units that seldom talk to each other
When not to use it
The work is finished or the decisions are fixed; run an after action review or retrospective to capture your own lessons instead
One person needs quick advice on an individual problem; troika consulting or wise crowds does that in under an hour
Nobody available has relevant first-hand experience, in which case an expert interview or a premortem with the team is more honest
The host team wants approval for a plan it does not intend to change, which wastes the visitors' time and damages their willingness to come again
The answer is already documented and easy to find; read it first
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Peer Assist?▾
A Peer Assist is a structured meeting in which a team that is about to start a piece of work invites peers who have done something similar to share their experience. The visitors offer options and insights, and the host team decides what to use. The method comes from BP's "learning before doing" approach.
How long does a Peer Assist take?▾
It depends on the complexity of the problem. Published guidance puts it at between half a day and two days, with the time divided into four roughly equal parts.
Who should be invited to a Peer Assist?▾
About six to eight people from outside the host team who have relevant first-hand experience. Pick for variety of knowledge, not rank. A facilitator from outside the team runs the meeting. Together with the host team, the meeting usually comes to roughly 8 to 16 participants.
What is the difference between a Peer Assist and an After Action Review?▾
The timing and the source of the learning. A Peer Assist happens before or early in the work and brings in other people's experience. An After Action Review happens after an event or project and draws out the team's own lessons.
Do the visitors tell the host team what to do?▾
No. The visitors describe what they did, what happened and what they would consider in the hosts' position. The host team owns the decision and should say at the end which points it will act on.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from BP (learning before doing); described in the NHS England Knowledge Mobilisation Toolkit.