[Helen Mitchell]

What strategies and tools do you use to effectively capture lessons learned?

[Corbin Metz]

From a lessons-learned perspective, I think the best strategies and tools are collaborative and oftentimes digital. While there are many templates available in physical form (like manuals, playbooks, etc.), the change management required to keep up with evolving internal and external factors demands digital formats. That being said, I like to keep it simple with a few questions that can provide everyone with actionable feedback: 1) what went well? 2) what could have been better? 3) what changes for next time? Capture them live/shared screen in a document or table, date with attendees, and save/share with your knowledge management system or digital document repository. Repeat at the end of each event until you build up a library, at which point you can probably organize/formalize better based on the data collected.

[Chris]

Hi Helen,
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For personal stuff, I just keep a regular journal on paper and replicate some of that into my ClickUp account. I typically journal at least once a week regarding lessons.
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For business, it is best to have a regular cadence, I suggest weekly. You should also use some sort of goal/OKR tool like profit.co or Lattice. For my teams, we log daily, compile weekly, and meet in thoughtful discussion monthly. Those monthly thought sessions get compiled quarterly, and the quarterlies annually.
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There are of course larger decisions and lessons. You should have some criteria as to what a major decision is. Perhaps it is a cost, or the head count impacted by the decision. For these, my team leverages a decision log that records all elements and assets related to the decision. We also keep a precise communication log. These are invaluable when 6 months later someone asks, “Why did we do that?”
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Chris

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