The “Lessons Learned” process – How to learn more
from what you do (right and wrong)

Lessons Learned is a process for reusing knowledge
gained through experience.  The point being that
when you encounter conditions that closely match
something you may have done before, you may benefit
from understanding what it was that you did that
made that activity a success or a failure. Simply
put, a lesson learned is a validated working
experience that, when applied, can positively
impact your future business development, or marketing
efforts.

The ultimate goal of the lessons learned process
is to turn perceived deficiencies, and recognized
best practices, into opportunities to improve your
results in the future.  Analyzing your business
building and marketing efforts to determine why
they succeeded, and why they failed can save you
time and money, and may even be the difference
in your overall success or failure.

A subject for lessons learned could be any activity
related to creating and marketing your business.

Things such as:
- Product creation
- Planning
- Business process creation
- Website or blog development
- Traffic generation strategies
- Outsourcing techniques, and so on

It is a very simple process consisting of an
“Originating Action”, which is what was done the
first time. The “Result”, which indicates whether
the experience was positive or negative, and, in
turn helps to determine whether to recommend
repeating or avoiding the same experience.

Additionally - What was the lesson’s “Contribution”
to your business? This is the crucial step that
describes what you did originally, and what,
exactly, was responsible for the result of the
original experience.  This is the element that
should be repeated, when the experience has a
positive result, and it should be avoided when
the result is negative.

“Applicable Task”: You must identify the task(s)
to which the lesson is applicable.

“Conditions For Reuse”: Now that you understand
what happened – where can you best use that
knowledge to make something work even better
the next time – or avoid doing at all?

“Idea”: This is the recommended future action.
Make a habit of digging out the lessons from
all of your key activities, and you will begin
to see your business success really accelerate.

As Always, To Your Strategic Sucess,

Jim McCarthy
The Strategy Professional