Lessons learned
Contents
Definition
Concise descriptions of knowledge derived from experiences that can be communicated through mechanisms such as storytelling, debriefing etc., or summarized in databases.
Purpose and benefit
Lessons learned from a project or from a certain process show in a concise form what was done right, what should be done differently and how to improve the process and product to be more effective in the future. They are often considered a key component of, and ongoing precursor to, effective risk management. Usually they are the outcome of the after action review.
Description
Lessons learned often reflect on ‘what was done right’, ‘what should be done differently’, and ‘how to improve the process and product to be more effective in the future’. In the nuclear industry, operating experience feedback is an example of an applied lessons learned programme.
Variations
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Implementation guidelines
- Organize a lessons learned meeting after a completed larger process or project or incident.
- Plan the lessons learned meeting carefully, and assign enough time for the meeting to discuss all aspects - positive and negative - of the process.
- Invite all involved members of the team, and listen openly their views.
- Get it in writing, and record all successes and failures together with all important parameters and circumstances.
- Create an action plan. The idea is to learn from the successes and failures not only to document them.
Sucess factors
- The date of the lessons learned meeting should be quite close to the termination of the process, so that all information be still live and available.
- Avoid that the team feels that the meeting is about punishment or assigning blame. The management has to develop a reputation for listening openly to input and not punishing people for being honest.
- Make the outcome of the lessons learned meeting available to those who might profit from it. This is especially important in the nuclear industry, where the operators of NPPs should learn from each-others operating experiences.
Common pitfalls
- The lessons learned meeting is not taken seriously. Either it will not be organized at all or it will not be prepared well.
- The meeting will be organized only at a much later time than the relevant process or event was finished. This leads to a substantial loss of the relevant information.
- There is not enough time assigned to the evaluation meeting. Not all aspects could be discussed, and not all opinions could be expressed.
- Not every involved member of the team was invited. As a result, the final statements could be biased, not every point of view could be included in the final report.
- The lessons learned meeting has turned into a 'finding someone to blame' session. This only does not help to learn from the lessons learned, but also creates an atmosphere of suspicion and fear inside the organization, which prevents expressing honest opinion in the future.
- The results of the lessons learned meeting are not recorded in written form. Therefore they cannot be included in the knowledge base of the organization, and cannot be communicated to other possibly interested partners.
- After the lessons learned from the event are discussed, no action plan will be designed to improve the performance in the future.
- Although the findings of the lessons learned session are written down and stored, but they are not communicated, and they are not made available to possible interested partners or staff members.
