An organization  couldn’t understand why its projects kept falling into the same holes again and again, despite the fact that it had implemented a lessons-learned initiative some time ago.

Initially, the project managers were eager to use the lessons-learned documents collected from past projects. After painfully weeding through a lot of information, they would eventually find a lessons-learned document for a project similar to the one they were currently working on.

In such documents, they found bullet-point lists of tips and links to templates and tools. This was not very helpful since they already knew some of this information and how to access the templates and tools.

They also started to notice that the lessons learned were repeated from project to project—and that these lists were pretty standard and there was nothing new across projects. After a while, they did not see much value in the lessons learned and started using them less and less.

Lessons Learned Done Right
The information and tips this organization had collected should not be confused with lessons learned, which, when done right, should provide deeper knowledge and insights. What’s missing is the context: In addition to the know-what, project managers also need the know-how and know-why.

• What worked? What did not work? Why?
• Who else has tried this approach before?
• Who are the expert resources who are good at this kind of project?
• How were the key challenges overcome?
• What led to end-user and customer satisfaction?
• Based on the experience, what would they have done differently?
• What were the pitfalls to watch for?

To be effective, the bare bones of bulleted lists have to be dressed-up in a narrative style to offer context and background.

Use Contextual Story Telling
A time-tested approach is using stories and story-telling to share knowledge and lessons learned.

Organizations like NASA, The World Bank and many others use stories to gather and share project lessons learned. Project managers get to reflect, compose and share their real-life experience on the project in a natural way and in the form of a story. Valuable tacit knowledge that cannot be captured in a formal report can be harnessed in a story.

The following are examples of tips from a lessons-learned document:

• It is important to identify hidden stakeholders.
• Stakeholder management should be performed throughout the project life cycle.

Here is the story after transforming these points into a lessons-learned anecdote:

As we got into the crucial stage of project execution of breaking ground to dig the tunnel, we had to stop work unexpectedly because a stakeholder showed up, and who we had failed to identify in our stakeholder management process. Guess who the stakeholder was? It was a red viper snake, which is an endangered species. Due to the strict environmental laws, the project was stopped until we could relocate the snake’s nest. We had the resources committed, and the delays cost the project over US$225,000, pushing the schedule back by a week.

Effective stories have a high learning value. They do not have to be long or be high drama—they can be simple and to the point. Generally, lessons-learned stories should focus on the mistakes made and show how they were corrected, with an explanation about the alternative and why it worked.

Write Your Own Lessons-Learned Stories
How do you get started using stories for lessons learned?

• Use narrative to compose and share your lessons in the form of a story.
• The organization or its project management office can host a story-telling session instead of formal post-project reviews and a lessons-learned session.
• Solicit and collect lessons-learned stories that reflect your culture, rituals and best practices. You can publish a handbook of these stories or organize them in a wiki.
• Promote dialogue and conversation and provide capability for seeking questions, comments and feedback on the stories.
• Explore new rich media of digital story-telling by recording and publishing video stories.

Instead of lessons lost by having projects continuously fall into the same holes, you can use stories to harness lessons learned and transform them into lessons applied.

By Jack S. Duggal