KM 101
Managing the Lessons Learned Life Cycle
Dennis Pearce
January 2025
Organizational vs. Individual Learning
Characteristics of Lessons
A ‘good work practice’ or innovative approach that is captured and shared to promote repeat applications or an adverse work practice or experience that is captured and shared to avoid a recurrence.� - US Dept. of Energy 2004
Knowledge generated by reflecting on experience that has the potential to improve future actions. A lesson learned summarises knowledge at a point in time, while learning is an ongoing process.
- International Fund for Agriculture Development
A lesson learned is a knowledge or understanding gained by experience. The experience may be positive, as in a successful test or mission, or negative, as in a mishap or failure. Successes are also considered sources of lessons learned. A lesson must be significant in that it has real or assumed impact on operations; valid in that it is factually or technically correct; and applicable in that it identifies a specific design, process, or decision that reduces or eliminates the potential for failures and mishaps, or reinforces a positive result.
- SELLS 2000, currently used by the American, European, and Japanese space agencies
Definition of a Lesson Learned
Initiation
Recogni-tion
Validation
Scoping
Capture
Storage
Dissem-�ination
Institution-alization
Mainten-�ance
Lessons Learned Life Cycle
Initiation
Recogni-tion
Validation
Scoping
Capture
Storage
Dissem-�ination
Institution-alization
Mainten-�ance
Lessons Learned Life Cycle
Where we often tend to focus
Gates to Organizational Learning
Process for Identifying and Capturing
Process for Validating
Process for Storing and Disseminating
Process for Testing
Once an individual learns, how fast does the organization as a whole become aware of that knowledge?
How well can the organization determine the accuracy, value, and importance of the new knowledge?
How well is knowledge retained by the organization as people come and go?
How well can the organization identify if and when it has learned?
Initiation
Recogni-tion
Validation
Scoping
Capture
Storage
Dissem-�ination
Institution-alization
Mainten-�ance
Initiation
The most valuable lessons often come from the least experience
Recognition
Recognition
Efficient and effective transfer of knowledge within an organization requires:�
Capture
Validation
Type of Event | Validation Process |
Event occurs more than once to the same person or team | Consistent outcomes over time |
Event occurs only once to one individual or team but multiple times throughout the organization | Use a Community of Practice to identify commonality, compare experiences, and come to consensus |
Event occurs one time in the entire organization | Review by a team of experts |
Event occurs one time, but no one in the organization has experience | Bring in external expertise to evaluate, or defer to the judgment of a “lessons learned reviewer” based on significance |
Storage
Note: Not everything about a lesson is known at the same time, so some of these are not just fields in a repository but also process steps
Scoping
Elements of an effective scoping process include:
Scoping After Storage
“INBOUND TO ZZZ, CREW REQUESTED TO LAND AT ‘N COMPLEX’ AND SUBSEQUENTLY REQUESTED TO LAND ON TXWY L IN FRONT OF FBO. TWR RESPONDED CLRED TO LAND ‘L8J.’ COULDN’T FIND ‘J’ ON ARPT DIAGRAM AND ADVISED TWR, AND THEY SAID IT’S BY THE S COMPLEX! BY THIS TIME WE HAD CROSSED BOTH ACTIVE RWYS AT ABOUT 800 FT AND TWR RECLRED US TXWY P IN FRONT OF FBO. TWR WASN’T UPSET AND THERE WAS NO CONFLICT BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN A PROB.”
Dissemination Methods (DoE)
Dissemination Methods (DoE)
Bundling Lessons: Knowledge intermediaries search databases, documents, etc. for patterns of lessons.
Two approaches:
Dissemination
Dissemination
Novices
Shared Work Practitioners
Shared Work
Producers
Increasing Context
Expertise-Seeking Novices
Potential audiences can be segmented based on their relationship to the lesson to be learned. There are three primary types of audience requiring various levels of context:
Institutionalization
The linchpin of the entire lessons-learned life cycle, but by far the most difficult to manage. Even the best organizations have problems in this area.
Common institutionalization fallacies:�
Institutionalization
Common Fallacies (cont.)�
Institutionalization
Common Fallacies (cont.)�
Institutionalization
Maintenance
Two facets:
Level | Lesson Producer | Lesson Consumer |
1 | Not even aware that there is a need to capture lessons | Not even aware of a need to learn |
2 | Aware of the need to capture but lacks the time/resources/ability | Aware of need to learn but unaware of available lessons |
3 | There is a repository, but it is either out-of-date or supported by personal initiative – no formal, sustained process | Aware of the existence of lessons, but the volume of content or number of databases is too overwhelming |
4 | Capture process exists, but it is viewed as a chore or assignment rather than as a benefit. Capture takes place at the end of project rather than as events happen. | Can find lessons that might be useful, but they are too sketchy or hard to understand or interpret |
5 | Good, well-accepted process that captures lessons easily in an ongoing manner, but only for a particular audience | Lessons are definitely useful but there is not enough time to look at them |
6 | Well-written lessons, available in multiple forms in a central location, easily searched, easily accessible by everyone in the company. Processes in place for institutionalizing and embedding lessons. Organizational as well as individual learning. | Everything is at my fingertips, easily accessible and easily applicable. I may even be learning lessons without knowing it. |
Lessons Learned Maturity Model
References
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References (cont.)