Learning From The Past_ The Importance of Lessons Learned in Project Management

2. How To Take Past Experiences And Learn From Them

3. The Value Of Learning From Mistakes Analyzing past mistakes is crucial for the success of future projects This is accomplished by: Mistakes providing unique opportunities for growth through knowing what worked/didn’t work Reflecting on errors helps identify areas or “blind spots” that we can improve on Analyzing mistakes creates a continuous improvement as ● ● ● we are thinking about what we can do to improve

4. Identifying Patterns and Creating Best Practices

5. Noticing patterns is the surest sign that something needs to be addressed with a best practice A pattern (could) indicate that the reason a mistake is repeated, and therefore, becomes a pattern, is due to unclear instructions This is where best practices come in You create best practices by analyzing the repeated mistakes and creating a document that outlines the correct (and most optimal) way of doing a task ○ This tangibly looks like streamlining workflows, eliminating unnecessary steps, and improving overall project efficiency ● ● Identifying Patterns ● ● And creating best practices

6. Leveraging Lessons for Better Decision Making

7. Applying past experiences is the tangible piece of learning from them ○ This comes in the form of analyzing previous projects and the patterns that made them a success/failure ■ You then take that information and apply best practices to the project at hand This approach cuts down on the time that people on the project have to spend figuring out what will make it the most efficient ○ It will also increase the rate of success for the project The practice of applying past experiences sharpens our decision-making process over time Said another way, applying past experiences gives us experience ○ This in turn is used to streamline processes which from the outside looking in, is better decision making! Thus, improving our decision making in things is actually a practice of learning and making changes based on what we have done in the past ● Applying Past Experiences ● & ● Improving Decision-Making Processes ● ●

8. Examples of Learning From Mistakes

9. Thorough Project Planning: Documenting our plan and sharing it with the team (when there’s a team project) helps us identify risks and get ahead of them. When we’re thorough we can streamline the time it takes for the project and reduce confusion Be Effective in Communication: The reason for needing great communication is that the flip side of poor communication means things get forgotten, assumptions are made, and ultimately mistakes are created. By over communicating, we cut the confusion and get everyone on the same page Encourage Others To Learn: Encourage one another to learn and speak up about needing help and wanting to work in areas. Be positive and open to hearing each other when people come forward with wanting help Regularly Monitor Progress: Staying on top of how things are going is probably the best way to avoid pitfalls. We all get busy and work in areas that need our attention, but by being communicative and checking in, we can ensure nothing gets passed our attention Post Project Analysis: Part of learning is analyzing how things went after the project is complete. It’s even more effective once we know how the client feels about performance. They say hindsight is 20/20 for a reason. We are more clear headed and able to objectively evaluation performance after the fact ● 5 Key Ways To Avoid Repeated Pitfalls ● ● ● ●

10. Learning is Best When We Share Our Combined Knowledge Creating a culture of learning and helping each other grow means we are able to share what we know and have learned. Here are 5 ways to help achieve that: Establish the Slack Channel: Bigger projects and projects of high performance should have messages in the correct slack channel for the client. If a project is big, maybe we get a slack channel for just that project and close it after Use ClickUp!: Clickup is meant to help keep things organized. It’s a platform we can assign due dates and help keep things on track. Blenda has ClickUp attached to Slack so we can more seamlessly see different ClickUp tasks at a glance Recognize and Reward: Call out people who are being great at communicating! We should always be encouraging and lifting each other up when we do great work and are being team players. Not only because it’s nice to be recognized but it creates a culture of positivity correlating with good work Encourage Continuous Learning: Recognize when people are talking about lessons they’ve learned or articles they link to help the team. This goes along with creating a positive culture of support and growth for the team Lead by Example: This is the golden rule of “treat others the way you want to be treated”. Leading by example by being communicative, sharing lessons learned, and recognizing others shows other team members this is the best practice for growth ● ● ● ● ●

11. ● Continuous Learning is essential for project success ● Create a culture of knowledge sharing to enhance collaboration ● Reflection and improvement lead to better outcomes in future projects ● Having a positive culture of recognizing others for their efforts and sharing of lessons learned creates a healthy work environment Conclusion

12. THANK YOU! Subtitle Final text/thoughts