The Lessons Learned Handbook

Dr Nick Milton is a director and co-founder of Knoco Ltd - a Knowledge Management consultancy comprised of seasoned knowledge management practitioners, mentors, and coaches. Knoco Ltd has been delivering successful and sustained Knowledge Management implementation to clients since 1999.

"The book is very practical and contains lots of advice, justified, how to perform each of the steps suggested in the process of lessons learned." --Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning"Valuable case histories of real-life events pepper the chapters, which systematically outline and summarise all the key steps and alternatives in the process in a clear, easy-to-read manner." --Australian Academic and Research Libraries

• List of figures and tablesAcknowledgementsPrefaceChapter 1: Introduction – learning lessonsLearning as a basic instinctLearning in organisationsLessons learned systems in organisationsHow well do they work?The value of learning lessonsChapter 2: Elements of a lesson learning systemLesson learning approaches in the 15th centuryWhat is a ‘lesson learned’?The steps in learning a lessonClosing the learning loopTrial and error, or trial and success?Survey resultsChapter 3: Lessons learned approachesFormal collect systemsInformal collect systemsFormal connect systemsInformal connect systemsA blended approachChapter 4: Principles of lesson identificationWhen to identify lessons?The principles of lesson identificationAiming for the ‘quality lesson’Examples of poor lessonsRecommendation:Stories and lessonsSelf-identification of lessons versus lesson identification processesThe questioning process – the metaphor of the treeRoles and accountabilities in lesson identificationChapter 5: Processes of lessons identifiedPost-project reviews or retrospectsAfter action reviewsIndividual learning interviewsLearning historiesEvaluations and assessmentsIncident investigationChapter 6: Writing down the lessonsEach lesson stands aloneThe lesson needs to be easy to follow and well structuredHow much context?Who is the audience?AttachmentsQuality assurance and validationLessons must lead to actionChapter 7: Taking actionWill there always be an action?What sort of actions are needed?How do you decide the action?Who assigns the action?Escalating the actionClosing lessonsChapter 8: Process ownership and process updateWho owns the processes?Local vs company process ownersThe role of the process ownerEngagement with the learning cycleLessons workflowValidation and escalationDocumenting processesChapter 9: Ensuring lessons and updated processes are re-appliedBroadcasting new lessons and process improvementsProcess improvements and trainingProcess review as part of operationsChapter 10: Technology to support lesson learningLesson repositoriesKnowledge librariesPublish and search technologyTaggingChapter 11: Sharing and seeking the unwritten lessonsCommunities of practicePeer assistBaton passingKnowledge handoverPromoting conversationChapter 12: The governance of lesson learningA governance frameworkMake corporate expectations clearLesson learning systemsMonitoring and measurementThe supporting organisationChapter 13: The principles and processes of safety investigationsWhat happened and why?The investigation processThe final reportChapter 14: Learning lessons in networks at Mars, IncLearn from where we areLearn from what we knowLearn from the past six monthsFormalising the learningSummaryChapter 15: Wikis as part of a learning system; a conversation with Peter KemperChapter 16: How not to learn lessonsChapter 17: ConclusionsIndex