My experience shows that most project managers believe they could learn more from lessons learned. While we all know that recording lessons learned is essential to ensuring that future projects go smoothly, most project managers don’t feel they do this well.
It’s not surprising that managing lessons learned on a project is difficult.
This article:
What are the Lessons Learned
The Lessons Learned Process
How to capture lessons learned1. Post-project reviews
2. Team meetings
3. Lunch and Learn sessions
4. One-to-one meetings
5. Wikis/Software
Lessons Learned Templates
Project Lessons Learned Examples
Use Lessons Learned from New ProjectsImprove your skills as you go
And make improvements for the future
What are the Lessons Learned
Because you learn from the past, lessons learned can help you manage projects more effectively. The idea behind lessons learned is that you won’t repeat the same mistakes.
The Lessons Learned Process
Lessons learned are easier than you might think.
Discuss what worked and what didn’t.
Please share this information with your team.
Take action.
This last part is crucial, and I’ll get to it in a moment.
How to Capture Lessons Learned
How can you share the lessons learned? There are many ways to share what you have learned about your project with the PMO, project managers, and teams.
Here are five ways you can try.
1. Post-project reviews
Does your project have a scheduled post-project evaluation? Get one now, if not, on yourprojectplan! Talk to your PMO to discuss a standard format for post-project reviews. You’ll find it easier to collect, share, and search the results if everyone does it in a similar manner.
The post-project review provides a formal opportunity for review of what went well and what didn’t. The meeting will provide an opportunity for open and honest discussion about the project. Participants can then take this knowledge with them to their next projects.
You can also share your output with other project team members.
2. Team meetings
To share lessons learned, you don’t need to wait for your post-project review. Make it a regular item on your project team’s agenda.
Ask people to share their week’s learnings. It is important to write it down. Keep track of all responses.
Although there might not be anything worth discussing every week, the act of asking creates an atmosphere where it is expected that lessons will be shared.
This culture promotes organizational learning. It will encourage team members and other managers to openly discuss what went wrong and what can be done better next.
3. Lunch and Learn sessions
These two suggestions are only useful for members of the project team. A lunch and learn session is an open meeting where anyone can attend to discuss a topic.
The ‘lunch” part refers to the fact that most meetings are held at lunchtime. People can bring their own food or have lunch provided. Lunch and learn sessions were either catered sandwiches or pizzas.
This is a great way to reach a wider audience by sharing your lessons learned. You can invite members of other project teams and the wider PMO community along to hear about your project.
4. One-to-one meetings
Take the time to ask your team members, line managers, and other project stakeholders for their lessons learned during one-on-one meetings. You might find that they are more willing to share their feedback with others and you may pick up some very useful tips.
This is especially true when things don’t go as planned. People are likely to be happy to share project successes in a group setting, but may be a little bit moot.