If you are a project enthusiast, you may have wondered, if it was even necessary to do a lessons learned: the famous "Lessons learned" many times you may lead projects yourself, and there comes a bit of that feeling that you will remember the project, and so it's not so important to write about them, but here are some reasons why you should start doing your homework:
1 - Putting it on paper makes us goals
There are studies that show that when we put things on paper we can be more objective, besides reducing stress, anxiety, and also fear of the future. This is because when we think there is a joining of thoughts by both the left and right side of the brain, which means that objectivity and subjectivity wage war against each other, but when you decide to write you pass the command to the left side, thus allowing it to guide your mind, order the thoughts and clarify uncertainties and anxieties.
2- You don't remember as much as you think
Our brain basically works with three types of memory: short-term, medium-term, and long-term. There is also the basal ganglion, but that is another story. What happens most of the time is that we never know in which part of our brain that experience was stored, which means that you can remember it 5 years from now, just as you can forget it next week. The cool part is that the more sensors you use to report a certain experience, the more your brain stores that activity. A good strategy is to teach younger classes of professionals your lessons learned, at TOPdesk we have Knowledge Day a day dedicated just to share learning, so you can make sure you get the most out of it.
3- You will remember even less than you think you do
Our brain sometimes works like a hard drive, erasing old information to make room for new information, the less you practice it, the less you actually learn. The way we learn is intriguing, the pyramid below shows the best ways to learn.
Make no mistake, your lessons learned do not represent a practice for learning, but they may present that practice if you write them down and actually use them in your next project.
4- When you share, more people learn from you
It sounds silly or even cliché, but it is still extremely valid, even more so nowadays. In the world of project management companies have what they call "Environmental Factors" which include culture, human relations and also the document standards that a company has, when you write down your Lessons Learned, you have contributed to the continuous improvement of the company and that others can benefit from your learning.
5- It's a great time to improve the relationship
A lot of our projects are for deliverables, where we deal directly with the client, and as much as our efforts are always towards delivering the best project, we don't always achieve this goal, for whatever reason, and our relationship with the client can become tainted. This moment offers the perfect pause to look back, put ourselves in the other's shoes, and understand where we went wrong, where we got it right, and how we can improve the image we left.
The maturity of a project manager can be given by the way he writes down his lessons learned, project management, like any other science, is in constant development, and one must learn with practice and experience, adapt and improve, at least this is what my lessons learned have shown me so far.
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