Lesson 10: Lessons learned
- 00:05 - Here, we’ll focus on the topic of Lessons. So, why do we even bother with lessons?
- 00:11 - Well, actually this is something we do naturally
- 00:15 - So, if you are perhaps going to install a new kitchen in your house
- 00:19 - You are going to reach out to friends and ask them
- 00:22 - “Hey, do you know anybody who’s installed a kitchen or have you done it?
- 00:26 - And if so, which supplier did you use? What was the quality like? What price did you pay?
- 00:33 - Is there some providers we should not work with because they are dangerous?
- 00:37 - And what else should we consider when going ahead with this project for our house or kitchen project?”
- 00:44 - And we should really do the same for projects, and as a Project Manager
- 00:49 - Lessons can really be one of our best friends
- 00:53 - There’s a nice quote from Otto von Bismarck and he says
- 00:57 - “Only a fool learns from other … from their own mistakes, but the wise man learns from other peoples’ mistakes"
- 01:05 - That’s a little bit harsh. I mean you can learn from your own mistakes as well
- 01:08 - But definitely we should be learning from other peoples’ mistakes
- 01:13 - There’s even a principle which is linked to lessons and this is called Learn from Experience
- 01:19 - So, a better tack could be learn from your own and other peoples’ experience, but you get the idea
- 01:25 - So, a project team should actively seek and record lessons
- 01:29 - I really like that word actively because it’s not just that lessons are expected to come to you
- 01:35 - You’ve got to go out there and look for them and seek them, that’s really the important point here
- 01:42 - And then you can choose the lessons which can add value to your project or which are relevant to your project
- 01:51 - Now, when should we capture lessons?
- 01:54 - Should we capture continuously or maybe just at the end of the project to give on to the other projects?
- 02:01 - Well, this should be something that should be done continuously
- 02:07 - For example, at the end of a stage or a chunk of a project is a very, very good idea
- 02:12 - Because you can look back and say, “Well, how did we do over the last month or two?”
- 02:17 - And there’s a small tip here as well. The more people you are communicating into a project
- 02:24 - Then the more opportunity there is to receive lessons, but you must actively seek those lessons as well
- 02:33 - Now overall when do you think lessons are gathered?
- 02:37 - So, I’m going to take you through basically the three big parts of the project and give you some feedback on that
- 02:44 - First is when a project starts up. So, we have a new project
- 02:48 - The project mandate comes in, and we have an overview on what to do
- 02:52 - Then we should immediately look back over similar projects within the organization
- 02:58 - And look for Lessons Reports from those projects, that’s the first place
- 03:02 - And then actively remind people that we identify to help in the project to actually give us lessons as well, you know
- 03:09 - What good tips have you, do’s and don’ts, for this project?
- 03:15 - And then during the project, kind of mentioned this already
- 03:18 - We should be continuously identifying lessons and recording them as well
- 03:23 - And the best time to do this, as I said, is at the end of every stage
- 03:28 - So, stages are like, they’re like chunks, we divide the project up into chunks
- 03:31 - So, at the end of a time period or a phase, we can look back and say
- 03:36 - “Hey, what went well over the last stage, but what lessons did we actually learn?”
- 03:42 - And you can then implement some of these lessons perhaps in the next stage already
- 03:47 - So, you get immediate gain or an advantage from doing this
- 03:52 - And then as the project closes, the team or the Project Manager actually
- 03:58 - Should document insights that they have gained for the whole project
- 04:02 - Put this into a kind of a report document and then make this available someplace
- 04:09 - To be given out to other future projects when they start up
- 04:13 - Okay, that’s good because at the beginning of the project, we also looked for those reports
- 04:18 - So, it’s nice to give back as well and that’s how we actually do it
- 04:23 - Now there’s another tip as well that works really well with Lessons Reports
- 04:28 - And that is the idea of doing a peer review
- 04:31 - So, just imagine if you could learn about lessons before you even make them
- 04:37 - Or learn not to make a mistake just before you’re going to make it
- 04:40 - So, P3.express, it’s another framework and it promotes the idea of peer review
- 04:46 - So, as Project Manager, I would invite another project manager in at certain times in a project and I’ll say
- 04:52 - “Hey, can you give me an overview of my approach to managing this project?”
- 04:58 - And they will do it and then I can immediately apply those comments that I get
- 05:04 - Or I can choose to apply and we can do the same for them as well. So, that’s a good way to learn
- 05:10 - So, this works very well with lessons, peer reviews and lessons work well together
- 05:16 - You may have heard the word retrospective, so this really comes from
- 05:20 - Well, I think it comes from, let’s say, the Agile area
- 05:23 - So, Agile promotes the idea of retrospective meetings
- 05:28 - So, retrospective means to reflect or to look back
- 05:32 - So, at the end of a time period, like a stage in PRINCE2, they also ask the same questions
- 05:40 - Well, what have we learned? What did not go so well and what do we learn from that?
- 05:44 - And then they take note of those lessons as well
- 05:47 - So, it’s common. It’s a common approach in lots of project frameworks as well
- 05:55 - In this version of PRINCE2, we speak about culture a little bit more than we used to
- 06:02 - So, I just want to talk about culture and lessons as well
- 06:06 - So, culture does have a big impact on the way lessons are gathered
- 06:11 - So, imagine working in an organization where mistakes are punished
- 06:17 - So, how open do you think people would be willing to share lessons then?
- 06:22 - Maybe not so much
- 06:24 - So, we would say then, well, this organization or this project has a poor project environment
- 06:30 - Which is not a good way to work on your project because it inherits the culture from the surrounding environment
- 06:38 - So, a really good project environment makes it easier to share lessons and be more open about mistakes
- 06:44 - So, as Project Manager, this is something we should be looking at, and a good way to set the table, let’s say,
- 06:52 - Is to be open about your own mistakes because that builds trust with your team as well
- 06:57 - Now there are certain documents, of course, where we can use to put in these lessons
- 07:04 - So, I mentioned that when we gather the lessons, we should put them into like a log file
- 07:08 - So, let’s call that the Lessons Log
- 07:11 - And at the end of the project, when we give a report out to other projects for the future
- 07:17 - We can also refer to that as the Lessons Report
- 07:20 - So, those are the two main documents which we can use and they actually make sense
- 07:25 - So, that’s it. So, as you can see, Lessons are important to capture in a project
- 07:30 - They really add value and we’re going to have a better chance for the project to succeed if we work correctly with Lessons
Quiz
- What is the principle name linked to gathering lessons?
- Who should actively seek and record lessons?
- When are lessons first gathered in a PRINCE2 project?
- Should lessons be gathered as the project continues?
- What should happen to the valuable lessons at the end of the project?
- Learn from Experience
- Project team members (including the project manager) should actively seek and record lessons, and the project manager should remind them.
- Lessons should start to be gathered as soon as the project starts up. For example, the project manager will review the lesson reports from recent projects.
- Yes, the project team should continually identify and record lessons.
- These lessons can be added to a lesson report so they are available for future projects.
Here you can submit your questions related to the content of the course. (For other questions, use the support system). The trainer's reply will be email to you in 48 hours.
The first lessons of the course, including this one, are available for free, even without registration.
You can purchase the course to access all lessons, additional material, and coaching:
More info and purchase options