Over a series of articles, I will talk about Lessons Learned and why I believe that they are the secret weapon that can help a project manager and organization compete and win in their market segment.
I will talk about what they are, why it is not common to have them, how they can be created and maintained and why they are more than just words on a page but the representation of an organizations assets and competative advantage.
Lessons learned are about learning from the past.
This leads us to the question of how do we learn? We learn by trying and failing until we succeed. We then replicate what works and avoid doing what fails. For me, some of the best lessons learned I have learned in my life and career are from the mistakes.
We are human and as a result we make mistakes. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes as long as we learn from them. We are not born with perfect abilities and knowledge. As children we learned by making mistakes. We tried to walk and kept falling. The lessons learned was that we got back up and kept trying until we could walk. This is the same with anything.
I started to play tennis when I was a child and while I am not Roger Federer, I now can play tennis to a good level. But I did not start that way, no one did. OK, may be Roger Federer was serving aces and hitting faultless back hand winners down the line while wearing nappies.
I learnt tennis in the same way as anyone else, by trying to hit a ball. Then when I could hit the ball I tried to hit it over the net. I kept trying until I could hit the ball into the court and then trying to return a ball when it was hit to me. Slowly, over time I could have a rally and then started to play matches.
Over many years as a child and teenager I got better and better until I was a good doubles player at my tennis club. I had reached a level of tennis where I could enjoy myself and have a fun and play competitive matches with friends.
Each time I would play I would try and learn so I could get better. When I hit a bad shot, I would try and remember what I did so I would avoid repeating it in the future. I would try and understand that I hit the ball out or into the net as I was too slow in getting into the right position. I would try and remember that when I hit a good shot it was because I had moved my feet and body into the correct position and then hit through the ball cleanly.
While tennis is not project management I hope that the analogy makes sense. We learn from experience, by making mistakes and by repeating what worked.
What if we did not have to spend years making mistakes while searching for the what works just to gain experience so we can become effective project managers? What if we can speed up the learning and experience building process. Do you think this would be of benefit to us and an organization?
The answer is yes.
Now I will explore what I mean by speeding up the process of creating effective project managers.
Successful International Project Management 