Validate and refine the lessons learned with the Project Review Board, Project Sponsor, Project Manager and key stakeholders. This activity helps ensure that the necessary learning is captured, while the change process is agreed upon and “owned” by the people who will make it happen on future major initiatives. Document any revisions to the lessons learned.
The success of the debriefing meetings demands a context that makes organisational learning possible. The executive management must make an honest and sincere commitment to establish this context. This commitment should take the form of a public approach to implement risk management on subsequent projects and to make all debriefing findings input to that risk management effort. Lessons learned the hard way on past projects are, if nothing else, risks for future projects.