Do you remember the last time you went to one of ‘those’ workshops at project end where key questions are asked:
- What did we do well?
- What could we have done better?
- What should we never do again?
Or variations thereof! Perhaps such a workshop never happened. The final documentation was delivered, and the project closed out.
We have more than once heard:
“I don’t know why we waste time on lessons learned as nothing changes”.
The question is, what happens AFTER the lessons learned workshop is held and documented?
Sometimes the report:
Is filed, where let’s be honest, no one ever reads it again.
Is sent to the Project Director/Sponsor, who is already focused on the next project delivery as their performance isn’t tied to implementing lessons learned.
Goes to an Executive Group, who may or may not follow up on the actions recommended.
Many of the online “5 steps to/Guides to" project close out talk about ensuring all project close documentation is filed and archived appropriately. No wonder the recommendations of any lessons learned report are not implemented! When was the last time you looked for something in archive?
While Project Managers with a learning mindset will learn and adapt on their future projects, this rarely occurs effectively at an organisational level. Unfortunately, all too often the lessons remain unlearned by organisations and are repeated across multiple project deployments.
End of project change integration to provide potential efficiencies and risk mitigations suggested by these learnings is arguably equally as important as the change management during the project.
As with any change, there are of course cultural barriers, such as blame culture or thinking the lesson doesn’t apply to this scope. In the case of project lessons learned, it is questionable if there are sufficient attempts at implementation for the change to meet with cultural resistance.
Connecting business improvement process to project lessons learned on project close out will create a cycle of iterative improvement. Here are some easy steps to take post a lessons learned workshops to ensure the integration of the lessons occurs:
Analysing Lessons Learned: to distil valuable insights on systemic project issues. This might involve examining the root causes of issues, evaluating the effectiveness of strategies and processes, and identifying opportunities for improvement.
Implementing Improvements: Based on the analysis, create specific improvement initiatives aiming to address the identified areas for improvement and enhance the overall performance of future projects or business processes. These may be as simple as tweaking a process with the process owner, adding information to a form or database and can be undertaken swiftly through codesign with the process owner.
Monitoring and Evaluation: Test to see if the lessons learned in future projects repeat as this will identify whether the business improvement was effective. This may involve tracking performance indicators, gathering feedback from stakeholders, and conducting periodic reviews to ensure that the desired outcomes are being achieved.
Feedback Loop: The feedback loop completes the connection between business improvement and project closeout lessons learned. The insights gained from monitoring and evaluation are fed back into the lessons learned process. This feedback helps refine the lessons learned documentation, update best practices, and inform future projects, creating a continuous improvement cycle.
By integrating project closeout into the business improvement process, organisations can leverage their project experiences to drive meaningful and efficient process improvements. This approach will foster a culture of learning, innovation, and ongoing improvement, ultimately leading to increased efficiency, effectiveness, and success in future projects and overall business operations.
Integration through iterative co-design can be highly effective in building a shared understanding of future project requirements.