Lessons learnt? Show me what changed.

Recording an experience is not the same as learning from it. Look for the difference in everyday work, not in the size of the archive.

“Lessons learnt? Of course we do those.” Right. Could I see them? Companies and individuals often show me their end-of-project meetings and collections of experience: what worked, what went wrong, what to avoid and what to repeat elsewhere.

As far as they are concerned, lessons learnt are done. Yet only some of those treasures actually change anything. The rest — like the lost ark in Indiana Jones — are eventually forgotten and gather dust.

If we only record our findings in an Excel file or a growing SharePoint library, we have lessons identified. We have noticed that something could have been done differently. That is an important step. It doesn’t yet mean we have changed how we work.

Lessons learnt are lessons we have actually acted on: they have changed everyday practice, processes or procedures. The difference is not in the file name. It is in what changed after the file was created.

For an organisation practising continual improvement, a library of identified lessons is a treasure trove. But someone has to use it: select the findings and turn them into concrete action.

Only then can we say we have really learnt from experience. Until that point, we have a well-kept archive. That has value too. Let’s just not call it change.