Lessons learned: 7 tips for making them work

'The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything'

- we all know this expression, the author of which is considered to be the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.

However, do we know how to admit our mistakes? And even more: do we know how to learn from our own or others' mistakes? It seems to me not always. We use these undoubtedly wise words mainly in two cases: when we want to justify our mistake or when we want to cheer up someone when he made a mistake.

#ProjectManagement is an area of activity that is prone to a wide variety of mistakes. And this is not surprising, because any project is always something new, unlike what has been done before. PMI defines a project as follows: 'Projects are temporary efforts to create value through unique products, services, and processes'.

But does this mean that mistakes in projects cannot be avoided? On the one hand, there will always be mistakes. And that's okay. PM should not be afraid of mistakes. On the other hand, it is very important to learn not to repeat the same mistakes when managing unique, but still somewhat similar projects. In the project management theory, there is an excellent tool for this #LessonsLearned.

Some time ago, I had the opportunity to conduct a series of interviews with candidates for the position of project manager and one of the questions I asked the guys was about lessons learned. I can't say I was surprised by the answers, but they allowed me to draw a couple of conclusions.

• Firstly, all PMs, without exception, know what lessons learned are. And some even try to collect them in some form.
• Secondly, most companies do not pay enough attention to this tool. Some PMs can collect lessons learned in any form. They probably store them somewhere. Perhaps they even look at their list before starting a new project. But almost no one said that the company has a centralized knowledge base with lessons learned, a process of discussing and sharing them, and templates for their systematization.

To be fair, it must be said that the 'textbooks' on project management do not strictly describe how this process should work, what information PMs should collect, and how it should be processed, stored, and used. However, I think this tool (or process) is very important and very underrated. Because, when used correctly, it helps to predict possible risks even before the start of a project and minimize their possible consequences. This, in turn, shows the client that the level of project management in your company is high, and they can and should work with you.

What aspects of working with lessons learned do I consider important?

1. Try to see a lesson in everything that happens on your project. This could be an observation from one of the team members, based on previous experience or even intuition. This may be an event that some people are concerned about. Finally, this may be a mistake that has already been made, but that you really don't want to repeat on new projects.
2. Collect lessons daily. There is no need to wait for the completion of the project, a retrospective with the team, or feedback from the client in order to create a list of lessons learned for the project as a whole, because over time you will either forget something or forget the context of the event, and as a result, either the lesson will not be learned, or its essence will be distorted.
3. Create a template for lessons learned. At the same time, try to store there only the most necessary and valuable information: a description of the event and the circumstances in which it happened, what went or could go wrong, what was done in that situation, what needs to be done to avoid this in the future.
4. Describe the lessons learned in as much detail as possible: so that after several months or even years, after reading the description of the event, you could remember it clearly.
5. Group lessons learned by project type. But always keep in mind that this could happen in other types of projects as well.
6. Make the lessons learned library available for everyone in your company, and conduct workshops to discuss them on a regular basis. Look at the list of lessons learned before starting each new project, and do not do it alone, but organize a discussion session with the project team. After all, 'lessons learned' is a tool not only for PMs: it is extremely important that everyone in your organization learns to learn lessons.

One more important point (7th)

that I'd like to highlight separately. If you are the head of a PMO, or a team leader of PMs, use lessons learned for gamification. For example, you can establish a nomination for 'the funniest project mistake of the year'. This will allow your colleagues not to be afraid of mistakes, to laugh at them, and, most importantly, to learn from them.

For example, I distinctly remember the following funny case from my previous experience.

The project manager had to make sure that the process of purchasing licenses for his project had started. He checked with the responsible person whether licenses of the required type were currently being purchased. Having received a positive answer, PM calmed down. In the end, it turned out that the organization actually purchased these licenses, but… for another project!

The result was a three-week delay behind schedule due to the need to organize another procurement procedure. Lesson learned: it is necessary to clarify not only the type of licenses but also the project for which they are purchased.

How do you use lessons learned in your project management practice? Share in the comments!

#agile #beePM