Lessons Learned

I don’t have a resource for you, but our experience has been that people involved in managing projects only remember a fraction of issues and details over the course of a project. Also, over time, memory tends to distort things.

It’s best to document history as it happens. If you have a good record, you can extrapolate appropriate lessons later IMO. I agree though that it is best to capture thoughts/lessons when they are at the forefront.

Bernard Ertl
eTaskMaker Project Planning Software

I would suggest you try MENSA, at http://www.mensa.org/ , you might find some interesting information there. There is also a couple of other sites dealing with this type of thing, if you need more let me know.

Bernard/Philip,

Thanks for your responses. I cannot agree more with Bernard’s statement regarding documentation of the information - I just need some facts pertaining to the amount of time that people remember verbally delivered information as opposed to that written or even visually delivered.

I will check the MENSA website as suggested by Philip.

I do recall some time ago reading a study that if I recall correctly noted that only 10% of people could remember information given verbally after 3 days - this does not bode well when trying to conduct a lessons learned review at the end of a project (be it 3 months or 3 years)!!!

Thanks again,

Tony

Tony,

I always find that I retain verbal information for a longer period if people shout and scream at me!!! ;-)
Perhaps the secret of ensuring that someone retains verbal instructions sufficiently long enough, is simply SHOUT THEM OUT!! Swearing at them will also probably help!! ;-)

I would also note that some Contracts require verbal instructions to be confirmed by the recpient in writing within seven days, after which time the verbal instruction becomes invalid. Does this indicate the period of time beyond which the memory forgets such instructions?
Perhaps this is why our industry had such a thriving dispute resolution culture!!

Now where was I?

Stuart

www.rosmartin.com

Tony,

I have a habit of observing people’s personal lives and relating them to their profession. Based on my observations, the retention of any lesson is directly proportional to the personal discipline a person inculcates in his/her life.

If a person is carrying out his daily personal routines on time without any hassles, and, if his/her mental, social, etc. factors are in favour of him/her, his/her retention of lessons learned or his/her memory is stronger.

Secondly, based on my observations, people directly involved in site works viz. site engineers, foremen, chargehands, etc. have a lesser retention period than their office counterparts.

Also, it would be very difficult for you to proove what you have stated in your phrase - "I am hoping to show that people’s memory will not be sufficient to rely on to capture lessons at some future period in time" - because the human mind is something which we, as human beings, cannot afford to under-estimate!!

Rgds,

Stuart/Vishwas,

Thanks again for replying. I think I may have found what I was looking for in the form of the Ebbinghaus "Forgetting Curve".

"In 1885 German philosopher Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted one of the first studies on memory, using himself as a subject. He memorized lists of nonsense syllables and then tested his memory of the syllables at intervals ranging from 20 minutes to 31 days. As shown in this curve, he found that he remembered less than 40 percent of the items after nine hours, but that the rate of forgetting leveled off over time."

The graph itself shows the following retention capability:

20 mins - approx 58%
1 hour - approx 45%
9 hours - approx 38%
2 days - approx 28%
31 days - approx 20%

Essentially, the message I was trying to get over was that by relying on memory alone, it would be fairly impossible to remember those lessons that you had thought about but not committed to paper, and that as time progressed, the chances of remembering at the end of the project (which is when Lessons Learned are usually reviewed) are probably less than 20%.

Although Ebbinghaus’s experiment was not very scientific, it does show the need for a formal exercise to collect Lessons Learned at more frequent intervals (or alternatively, to keep a log that can be added to as and when required).

Regards,

Tony

Tony,

What a fantastic post!
Thanks for bringing the Ebbinghaus “Forgetting Curve” to our attention!
I can’t wait to incorporate a heading of “Contractor simply forgot to procure materials in time” as a valid claim item!
Love it!!

Cheers,

Stuart (or at least I think I am!! ) ;-)

www.rosmartin.com

Tony,
"The weakest ink is better than the strongest memory"
When I worked in Germany, I visited a company to access its cabilities. The MD just before I left showed me two large binders, and told me that these were the most valuable things in his company. These were his "Lessons Learnt" that he insisted on being added to on a frequent basis. He also explained that his factory had burnt down, and by using the contents had been able to start up quickly and more efficiently. Since then I have pushed on all my contracts for this to be introduced some times with success.