LESSONS LEARNED
Capturing and resurfacing lessons learned is one of the essential programs in the knowledge management function. Lessons learned to allow the business to learn from its successes and failures, identifying key elements that can be nurtured or avoided in future projects.
As part of my different project and knowledge management roles, I readapted and developed multiple methodologies to extract critical information from project teams (e.g., after-action reviews, retrospectives, etc.). Working in a consultancy fashion, as a lessons-learned facilitator, I ask multiple questions to frame the challenge, the context in which the project took place, what happened, what the team expected, and the lessons distilled from the experience. The process aims to facilitate a reflection process consolidating insights from different team members.
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All the insights captured during the sessions are codified and stored in the organization's content management system for further use.
My experience with different teams has always been successful and fun. Project teams generally do not have the time or tools to pause for an hour and reflect on the experience. As a facilitator, I like the process to be as engaging and fun as possible. Creating a trustworthy atmosphere is essential to allow participants to recall critical information and share it openly. Sometimes it is not easy to talk about "failure" or things that went wrong. However, learning from experience is essential to avoid the same pitfalls in the future.
When working face-to-face, I like participants to participate actively by giving them post-its and whiteboards. Devoting the first minutes of the session to explain the game's rules and modeling behavior is critical for participants to move freely and add insights fluidly. You can even use play-dough and LEGO depending on the audience! When working virtually, a few tools such as MURAL or Miro can support the entire experience. They allow multiple participants to collaborate using a virtual whiteboard. Both tools are very user-friendly, so users can start working with them right away.
Capturing the insights that surface during the session is extremely important. Once participants have provided their inputs (e.g., post-its on the whiteboard canvas), it is time to consolidate the results and tell a compelling story that includes contexts, lessons, and recommended actions. The next step is to create a report that all participants validate. This report is the key deliverable from this process: the lesson-learned document.
The lesson learned document must be uploaded to the content management system to become accessible to other similar stakeholders and colleagues. While storing lessons learned, it is important to use the right metadata (e.g., energy, Asia, investment) so the information surfaces using Search.
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It is critical to keep the lessons relevant and current. Perhaps some lessons have a "sell-by-date" and have to be achieved in a couple of years. Other lessons may have a prolonged shelf time. In any case, it is important to conduct lessons learned inventories and audits to assess the content quality and relevancy and decide what to do next.
Lastly, disseminating lessons is the final step in the process. You can capture many lessons, but if they are not used, you work in vain. A good way to disseminate lessons is through knowledge-sharing events. Project teams can present their lessons and get questions from colleagues and supervisors. This is a very enriching process for both participants and presenters, as they will likely receive useful feedback and additional insights.
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Capturing and disseminating lessons learned is a fulfilling task, especially when project teams see the value and use the lessons to inform their decisions on new projects. The process may take some time, but the return on investment is high!
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All the images have been taken from different projects at the IMF, IDB, and WBG.