Hank Malik: Creating Value from Lessons Learned

Hank Malik is an experienced Knowledge Management (KM) lead and practitioner. He has proven KM skills in multiple KM programmes, blending knowledge sharing processes, collaboration, communities, learning, information management and digital tools to achieve tangible business benefits for organisations, across different sectors and continents.

He holds both the Master Certified Knowledge Manager (KMI) and the Chartered Knowledge Manager (CILIP) designations.

In 2020, Hank published his first book Knowledge Management – a primer and catalyst for Digitalisation (co-authored with Jordan Richards). Previous to that, he contributed to The KM Cookbook, The Knowledge Manager's Handbook (2nd edition) and The Palgrave Handbook of Knowledge Management.

Knowledge management and his large experience with Lessons Learned were the focus for this interview.

Nota: Esta entrevista está disponível em português no KMOL.

Let's start with the basics. What is Knowledge Management?

Good question to start with! When I start a conference talk, I always say “if you ask 10 people what is KM, you will always get 10 different answers”! Therein lies the challenge!

For me Knowledge Management is a blend of people, process, content, learning and technology with a strong focus on combining KM with Information Management and increasingly Data Management in the new brave world.

A lot of purist KMers and KM specialists will always push the people and cultural sides but without a solid Information Management platform, processes, and procedures, the value of KM can be rendered quite weak and demonstration of tangible business outcomes difficult to show - and let alone believable.

When implemented correctly with the right skills and resources, KM is also a key transformation management enabler for key change within organisations.

You have extensively used Lessons Learned - in different countries, cultures and industries.?How would you describe Lessons Learned to someone who has never heard about it?

Lessons Learned is a key knowledge capture and transfer method or process. It helps capture important learnings, experiences and insights from key events, activities, and projects to inform future performance improvements and avoid making the same mistakes again.

Lessons Learned, as a KM method, has been around for a long time and was originally pioneered successfully in the Oil and Gas industry, very closely linked to the concept of ‘learning before, during and after’.

It is important not to confuse Lessons Learned (which should be more structured and managed - the learning after) with after action reviews (which are sharper / shorter events - the learning during).

For Lessons Learned to be successful, there needs to be captured actionable recommendations and outputs with clear instructions, accountabilities and timelines for implementation; otherwise, lessons are only identified.

Lessons Learned can however be captured in multiple methods: from more formal approaches with structured templates and facilitated workshops; to more informal methods such as storytelling, conversations and anecdotal circles and knowledge cafés. Either way, key insights and experiences need to be effectively captured, transferred, shared and applied for benefits realisation.

I would like to see more Knowledge Managers take personal ownership of Lessons Learned as a key tool in their KM toolkits. Quite often it is delegated to Learning and Development or HR. We, in KM, can steer and train multiple departments and help to manage the outputs better.

What makes Lessons Learned such a powerful KM tool?

For me Lessons Learned is something delivered after key events or project stages where important activities have been delivered. Lessons Learned are a good way of capturing and codifying the main learning points so that others can also benefit – to do something positive, better, faster, cheaper or safer.

Lessons Learned is about capturing valuable knowledge - both tacit and explicit - and then applying it in a timely and effective manner. I believe that, for maximum value to be achieved, it is key to work with continuous performance improvement specialists, who are trained in improvement methodologies, such as LEAN and Six Sigma, who can take key learnings to implement specific recommendations, then measure and report on progress.

Do Lessons Learned need to be documented to have value? What is the role of digital tools in Lessons Learned?

I think that digital tools or technology play a really important role in helping to capture, categorize, store, search and disseminate lessons learned. Most importantly there is the ability for easy identification and codification of learnings, using a best of breed learning knowledge-based tool that all users can easily access with content tagging and mapping in-built.

Once learnings are codified (using a tailored solution - developed in house or from an external vendor) digital analytical tools are invaluable to produce performance statistics that demonstrate real benefits achieved, and can be a real game-changer. So yes, learnings need to be documented, promoted and actioned.

Lessons can also be can also captured through proven storytelling techniques and using video, video blogs (Vlogs) with search capabilities. Here the knowledge will be mainly tacit, but still very useful for dissemination.

Can you share with us an example of how Lessons Learned were used with great benefit for the organisation?

In my KM career, I can probably credit my biggest successes to the usage of Lessons Learned in a managed way: the application of captured learnings made a real difference to the people and the organisation.

This is particularly the case when applied to major programmes and projects where real tangible benefits can be demonstrated (e.g. cost savings, cost avoidance, health and safety, environmental, and performance improvements).

I have seen the use of Lessons Learned successfully implemented within Major Programmes and Projects and particularly in the design, development, construction and operations of major oil, gas and infrastructure projects. Here the challenges of time, cost and value are huge, and lessons which can reduce risk, and allow a faster, more efficient delivery can be highly beneficial when shared between projects.

Important here is embedding Lessons Learned into the key project stages with a feedback mechanism into on-going performance improvements. When this is done correctly, I have seen KM supported projects deliver in excess of $600 M cost avoidance / cost savings.

What opportunities do you see in bringing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the process of capturing and using lessons learned?

AI could potentially assist with the identification, scrolling/ sweeping and mapping of multiple learnings, insights and knowledge capture with a defined and controlled field of content and only internal to organisations. Learnings in this content space would have to be fully verified by subject matter experts in the first instance. AI findings can be ‘creative’; so, don’t trust the initial results - they are only a starting point.

Skilled human interactions to identify potential learnings in the right context in the first place is paramount, and collaboration and communication are key. These are activities which AI cannot really deliver on. However, the ability to introduce machine learning to identify key patterns and recommendations from multiple learnings could definitely bring reduced cost and time advantages, resulting in speedier results which should be considered.

What would be the 3 top tips you would give to someone who is about to start using Lessons Learned at their organisation?

1. In the first instance, get leadership to identify and recommend areas which could benefit from performance improvements or which currently experience the strongest ‘pain’. So, identify high impact areas.
2. Introduce a set of proven Lessons ?earned methods and processes and train staff how to capture learnings – start simple and raise your profile with lessons learned workshops ideally in person.
3. After a period of assessment consider introducing a more structured lessons learned digital tool or learning knowledge base that can automate the capture, validation, and dissemination of learnings.

You have over 20 years of KM experience around the world.?What challenges do organisations currently face which can be addressed by KM?

Areas where KM should certainly help include the following:

• To reduce the time searching for right information.
• To better capture and re-use our staff's learnings, experiences and skills better.
• To find internal and external skill and expertise faster.
• To improve knowledge sharing, innovation, quality and productivity.
• To promote more effective collaboration and encourage wider communication.
• To help with better decision-making.
• To improve the development of personal knowledge and skills development for lifelong learning.

In 2020, you and Jordan Richards wrote a book with the title Knowledge Management - A primer and catalyst to support digital transformation. For the best part of the last ten years, every organisation has been talking and investing on digital transformation; a very small percentage is considering proper knowledge management.?What would you say to those organisations which are yet to appreciate the link between knowledge management and digital transformation?

Increasingly there is a dependency on Digital Transformation Management. Unfortunately, I see little really successful case studies appearing. I think we are still very much still in the infancy of the collaboration between KM and Digital Transformation. Although a lot has already been written about the potential of this partnership, I have yet to see real tangible benefits delivered between the two areas

Where the two can merge successfully with enlightened leadership, I see real benefits occurring. Using the new digital technologies available to help improve knowledge sharing and collaboration to solve key business challenges and turning KM into real actionable value services.

KM needs to raise their profile very much on Digital Management projects and introduce a framework of foundation KM principles upon which Digital solutions can be developed. KM should focus on the interlinking areas of information, collaboration, learning and people with supporting processes that act as key enablers for the Digital technology tools. KM is very much the human contextual and change side of Digital Transformation and should be included early in the project delivery plans, with a focus on performance improvement and benefits realisation through IT.

Finally, let's say you are given the chance to start KM from scratch at an organisation. What will your first 3 activities be?

1. Undertake an early stakeholder assessment to see where the key KM sponsor, influencers and supporters lie. If you can't find any, then I probably wouldn’t start KM!
2. Deliver a user-friendly, simple KM self-assessment or health check to identify both the opportunities and challenges currently being faced in the organisation. I'd look to capture rich, anecdotal evidence to back up my findings.
3. From the assessment findings, create the business case and engaging user cases for three early pilot areas to test and demonstrate that KM can deliver the expected results, and present findings to the Executive Board / Sponsor for approval to continue with an invested programme.