Are your Lessons Learned working in practice?
Lessons Learned (LL) have all too often underproduced in terms of value, especially when interrogating impact and results. In analysing LL systems I am often struck by the lack of alignment between the learning event and consideration for reuse/reach/impact within the organisation. Too many LL systems are limited by process gaps that are not considered because the people "managing" the process are technical specialists (e.g. engineers or lawyers) and not learning specialists.
More concerning is that many LL projects can't actually report on what they are trying to achieve, changes in behaviour. For many LL just seems like a good idea or a compliance based function. It is here that opportunity is being lost and, in many cases, the cost of business is unwittingly being increased. For example, on a recent project with a MNE, a Lessons Learned Manager reported that the company had collected 1300 LL in the past 12 months, whereas there had only been 300 LL in the 3 years prior to that. Impressive, but the problem is that quantity does not mean impact. In this case, there was no consideration for reuse, impact timeline or projected results. There was no consideration for the actual value of the lesson and there was no plan/process in place for the transfer of the lesson into practice - you can read ore about this in our Juran white paper "The top 2 reasons KM projects fail."
I do not like the term LL and instead opt for Lessons In Practice. LL can give the impression of something that is based in the past, whereas organisation/individual learning at work is continuous and set in practice. The process is not linear, it is more like a wave, where learning events should be continuously sifted and recycled in practice, in order to create impact (a change in behaviour) and results.
The LIP Wave is a question-based method to better apply organisational learning. Have you really learned a lesson if all you do is create an artefact? If you create LL that never get accessed or applied, if they are not seen as valuable by the end users, are they really worth your time an effort? The lessons you create, do they actually hold the information you need to create future impact that brings about better results? Is the lesson actually set in practice and does it consider transferability across the organisation?
There are many more questions you could/should ask, but this diagram will hopefully give you some food for thought.
