238 Project Management
problematic. Your team
may have partially dis-
solved, making it difficult
to get everyone together.
Even if you do get them
together, the enthusiasm
level may not be what
you’d like. Finally, it can
be taxing on the memories
of those involved, and you
may get input that’s been
altered by the passage of
time. Conduct sessions
periodically—either at the
end of a logical phase of the project, or at some regular interval
of team meetings.
Allow the opportunity for submitting input anonymously.As
mentioned above, this may allow information and ideas to reach
you that are unlikely to surface in group sessions, or would not
be appropriate.
Maintain up-to-date and accurate records.This reduces the
reliance on people’s memories. It will also facilitate the process
of determining root causes, verifying the extent of problems,
correlating possible causes and effects, etc.
Be sure to examine successes as well as problems.Reviewing
positive effects can reinforce the value of certain methods, par-
ticularly the ones that people tend to avoidor undervalue.
Tips on Getting Others to Implement Your Lessons
It’s one thing to alert others to the problems you faced and to
provide information about what you and your team have
encountered. However, if you do not structure your information
so that others can actually apply the lessons you’ve learned,
your organization hasn’t really benefited. Below are some sug-
gestions on ensuring that your wisdom is acted on:
Don’t relate lessons learned only to the specific context of
Be Sensitive
Inquiring about the
cause of a particular
problem may be a difficult question to
answer in a team context.An individual
performance issue, such as neglect,
inattention, ignorance, or incompe-
tence may have caused the problem.
Try to anticipate and avoid situations
where personal embarrassment can
occur. Providing an outlet for anony-
mous inputis an excellent way to
reduce the chances of surfacing sensi-
tive issues in front of the entire group.