Advertising Lessons Learned
A way of getting people to share ('advertise') lessons learned from work experiences so that everyone can gain.
People invariably claim to learn something new each day but are rarely required to describe exactly what they have learned. Pressing people to substantiate their claim almost seems like an incursion into private grief. It is easier to assume people are continuously learning from experience and let them get on with it. But to do so leaves whatever has been learned un-communicated with the risk that the learner him or herself isn't crystal clear and with the grave consequence that no-one else can benefit from it.
The solution is to establish communication channels where what people have learned can be advertised for all to see. There are a number of ways to bring this about
- a large notice board in a strategic place dedicated to learning. Anybody is eligible to write a 'lesson learned' notice and post it on the board for all to see. The notice board would be cleared once a fortnight to encourage a constant flow of fresh notices
- a monthly departmental circular where people submitted 'lesson learned' pieces
- an email facility where lessons learned could be transmitted electronically rather than relying on old fashioned notice boards and circulars on paper
- a fortnightly learner's corner (akin to speaker's corner) where at lunch time volunteers could get on a 'soap box' and give a five minute talk on some recent experience and what they had learned from it
- a routine requirement that all project teams, task forces and anyone given an investigative task have to include a full description of the lessons learned from tackling the project. This could be displayed alongside the recommendations themselves and given equal prominence
- a learning scheme, similar to a suggestions scheme, where people put lessons learned notices in boxes which are processed by a democratically elected panel who 'judge' the quality of the entries against agreed criteria and award small prizes
- learning circles, similar to quality circles, where people meet to swap experiences and identify lessons learned that would benefit them and the organisation.
The purpose of all these ideas is to provide conduits where learning can be transmitted loud and clear so that people become used to describing what they have learned and, above all, have the opportunity to learn from what other people have learned. Blowing the learning trumpet needs to become an accepted practice rather than something strange or unnatural.