On Projects*

Your team members have the experiences and knowledge and it’s your job as the Project Manager to regular extract this information and log it throughout the course of the project. (To make life a little easier I’ve added a Lessons Learned Log to download at the top of this page.)

PRINCE2 and other project management methods are generally pretty good at prescribing when you should do this (for example PRINCE2 does this when completing work packages and stages) but to effectively extract this information from your team you need good workshop skills, good interpersonal skills and some street smarts to decode office/project politics.

Workshops are a good (and fun) way for formally collecting lessons learned from the team. All the usual fun workshop techniques apply here, book a place outside the project office, use coloured paper and pens, encourage people to speak their mind, do some go-carting afterwards to celebrate the end of stage.

However many PMs will also note that not all lessons learned are discovered through formal channels. Lessons are like icebergs, 10% are visible and 90% lie hidden beneath the surface. So look beyond the project spam email requesting everyone to pass lessons learned back to the project administrator, or the dull 2pm lessons learned meeting where everyone is trying to combat the lunch food coma. Try to be innovative, you’ll be surprised what you can learn at a water-cooler conversation, turning up to the suppliers Friday afternoon drinks or even chatting to the nerds while they are on their cigarette break outside.