Lessons Learned on Operationalising Lessons Learned

This is a re-post of a blog post by James Cohen at the International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT).

Lesson learning - the process of learning from experience – has been applied with enthusiasm by the development and security community. However, it has also been viewed with skepticism as organisations have found it difficult to integrate lessons into their operations. The following are some of the lessons that ISSAT has learned that may be helpful to others attempting to translate learning into real change in practices on the ground.

Senior level and organisational buy-in: Just like SSR, without senior level acceptance of the lesson learning process and acknowledgement of its value, it won’t go anywhere.
Value for time: To get that buy in, people need to see that taking on this new process is worth their time. People are busy, and if lesson learning is just going to be an interesting intellectual and archival exercise then they’ll give minimal or no support. It comes down to ‘what’s in it for me’.
Recommendations: There has to be some recommendations on how to go forward. This will take some effort on the part of the people in charge of the lesson learning process. You can’t say what has been identified and then entirely leave it for others to figure out what to do. Once again, they’re busy. Even if some recommendations are slightly open ended it can spur those who the recommendations affect into action to fill in the gaps.
Be Specific: Once concrete recommendations have been ironed out by all involved, be specific on what it will take to implement those recommendations. What are the actions? How long will it take? What resources will it require?
Integrate into the Larger Strategy: Just as any SSR programme should fit into an overall national SSR programme, and in turn a National Poverty Reduction Strategy, the lesson learning process should fit into an organisational development programme, or organisational evaluations. The more pre-existing processes and programmes it can tie into, the more buy-in the process will get.
Spin Offs: Think of what else lessons identified can produce beyond a report (blogs, technical tools, guidance notes, seminar papers). Learning about a budgeting tool or workshop framework that a colleague developed, and turning that into a generic template that others can use can be quick win to get buy-in on the lesson learning process.
Follow Up: If you’ve achieved buy-in for a lessons learning process, make sure to follow up that recommended actions are undertaken. All it takes is one round of recommendations development and new action plans to go nowhere and you can lose all your support.
Task People: Someone has to be held responsible to follow through with recommendations. Make sure every action that has been approved has a responsible party for implementation.
Make the Process Engaging: Don’t put all the emphasis on a final report. Sometimes the interview process of gathering lessons can be just as valuable and lead to immediate action. Make sure to document what people take from an after action interview immediately. Learning through the whole process will create ownership of a report. The report will wind up being just a confirmation of what has been discussed and gives a plan forward on actions people want to take on.
Process Lessons: There can be a number of context lessons (e.g. working in South Sudan is tough), but when gathering lessons, focus on ‘why’ and ‘how’. Get people to drill down into the tacit knowledge and assumptions. This can help in the development of tangible recommendations that the organisation will see the benefit of implementing.