Putting Lessons Learned into Action

Acronyms and jargon have a wonderful way of locomotion - especially around my being.  They manage to enter the ear and leave through the mouth, silently, stealthily without a trace.  And as I continue to struggle with AAR, LLR, RCA and the like, I came across yet another term - A3.  Fortunately, this time around it was not an acronym, but just a hook to hang a process on.  A3 is a process followed by Toyota to record process improvements, and the name is derived from the paper size they originally used to write these reports - they probably still do!

So, the topic is about how organizations learn from their mistakes, and ensure that these lessons stay with the organization.  Most quality programs statute an improvement process which usually starts with something called the Lessons Learned. This is usually a stand-alone document or gets associated with a Project Legacy Report or something similar.  The intention, of course, is to record the lessons learned during the execution of a project, or in the process of identification and resolution of a problem or issue the organization was faced with.  However, in most cases, this gets recorded more as a matter of following due process and usually gets stored in some remote location, never to be retrieved again.

In a "social enterprise" - one where people in an organization are networked, have easy access to each other, are able to have conversations on ideas, insights and issues and knowledge is easily transferred through people or content - making the switch from tacit to explicit rather effortlessly - it ought to be easier to make lessons learned available across a larger cross-section of people.  However, what is more important is to ensure that this lesson is put in action, institutionalized - either through a process improvement or a skill improvement program and results in tangible benefits to the organization.  This can happen only when knowledge (or rather the use of knowledge) can be measured.

Lesson Learned Reports also have a rather tedious method of being static and inhibiting exchange of ideas - even after the report has been prepared.  This can be avoided by making the report preparation itself a dynamic process - one which happens as the problem identification occurs and the solution is identified.  And when such a process becomes interactive, and happens in a collaborative environment, chances are that there are a lot more people following the progress, and therefore stickiness or ability to recall the lesson is higher.  Also, in the process of tracking progress, there are other teams of people who are simultaneously experimenting with the solution and coming up with modifications and suggestions.  The dynamic nature of such a solution has the ability to impact a practice (or a process) making the institutionalization of such a change much quicker.  The impact of such a change is also quickly shared across the organization and becomes measurable.

How are lessons learned (LLR) or After-Action-Reviews (AAR) conducted in your organization? Share your feedback on how good this tool is in causing business improvements.