Power of Lessons Learned

Introduction

I don't think you are ready for this…

15 years of project management covered in a sentence.

"Power of Lessons Learned".

My career as a project manager started as most project managers. I was an "accidental" project manager.

I was not trained as a PM, and I was not studying project management, but I was curious and ready to learn more.

Lessons Learned through Projects

First One: First Lessons Learned

As soon as I received my first project, I got a Mentor assigned. He told me the lesson: "If you cannot plan it, you cannot do it".
Simple but very powerful statement. It highlights one of the key reasons why projects fail.
It also demonstrates one of the most important skills of the project manager, which is the capability to look ahead and create a realistic plan.

These lessons learned drive my career for the next three years.

Project Two: Time to Manage a "Troubled" Project

On day 1, I was told by the sponsor, "This project has been red in the past 2 years", "nobody was able to turn it around", and "You have a good reputation, but PMs normally leave after 3 months".

This is a wonderful start.
I followed the "cookbook," which has worked so far. Make sure you have realistic plans. But I noticed this project was different, and it suffered from something else. Every status meeting was out of control, and stakeholders shouted complaints and requests at each meeting.
I had a feeling that something was broken with my communication.
Reached out to my mentor asking for advice. He confirmed the same. There is a problem with communication.

The suggestion was to meet the stakeholders 1-on-1 who are decision makers and try to surface what the problem is.
I asked the question: "How do you know?"
The response was: "I learned this on my past project."

Another lesson learned which helped me to turn around a project.
I met 1-on-1 with stakeholders, and they appreciated my approach so much that they all overwhelmed me with feedback and pain points.

After 3 weeks of deep diving, I found a solution. In 6 months, the project went back to green, and I earned the badge: "project rescue professional."

I did not feel too special, by the way, because I just followed other PMs' lessons learned. All solutions have been "customised," but I still did not want to take huge credit. I did my job.

Project Three: The Global Project

New challenge. New stakeholders. New hurdles.

The new project started with training, so I knew this was different. However, the training focused on culture and working in a virtual environment.
Oh, this will be useful. The next day, a team of 30+ was introduced on a virtual call. People from three different continents are spread between six countries. We just had a 45-minute slot to ensure nobody stayed overtime just for this meeting.

This project challenged my current experience, and the programme manager quickly offered his wisdom.

"You should build close relationships with your team and business stakeholders" - Ok, how?

He said: "What worked for me was to visit your team twice a year and quarterly your stakeholders."

I was never keen to travel a lot, but I collected several thousand airline loyalty points. But the lessons learned worked. I was able to quickly establish team spirit and build a close connection with my new business stakeholders, which helped me a lot after this project.

I'm not a big storyteller, but listening, receiving and implementing lessons learned made a huge difference in my career. I learned that we, project managers, can benefit from the wisdom of other project managers' experiences.

Lessons learned represent:

• Valuable information that can help improve current/future projects
• By analysing and documenting lessons learned, project managers and teams can avoid repeating past mistakes
• Identify areas for improvement and promote knowledge sharing and continuous learning

There are many ways to incorporate lessons learned:

• Use a root-cause analysis
• Integrate lessons learned into KPIs
• Into the change management process

Conclusions

The true power of lessons learned lies not in documenting past failures but in transforming them into future victories. Every challenge is a stepping stone. Each setback will teach you something new. We should always be open-minded and ask.

My lessons learned to You (reader):

"The most expensive lessons are the ones we fail to learn; the most valuable ones are those we dare to share. "