Conduct a Lessons Learned Analysis for a decision made in a work organization.However, other organizational contexts are eligible, including educational, residential (e.g., a condominium policy decision), and military organizations inter alia.The process you follow must include separate interviews of at least two people knowledgeable about the outcome of the decision and its impact on the organization. Your research might also include written documents and records, such as a report of the results of the decision’s outcome on preselected criteria (e.g., ROI, retention rate of employees, etc.). Include a record of the two interviews in an appendix. Be clear about what questions that you asked in order to reveal “what really happened and why”. Do your two informants agree? Where they do not agree, why is this so?
List your lessons learned clearly. Explain why each was selected.In your analysis of the lessons learned and not learned, consider the factors (obstacles?) involved.For instance, how were frames involved? Did learning require a shift to a new (or updated/revised) frame? Was there a frame conflict to begin with and, if so, did it help or hinder the learning process? How painful were the lessons? Was this a source of resistance to learning? How was the pain, if any, dealt with? Differently by different people? Why?
Which lessons were really known already, and which were truly new “learnings”? Why, in retrospect, did the key people (decision makers?) not already know these lessons?Which of these lessons have been learned by the people responsible for making or implementing the decision? For those learned, how well are they being applied? For those not (fully) learned, why haven’t they? That is, why is the application of these lessons within the organization not complete? What should be done to make their acceptance (more) complete? The report is limited to two single-spaced, typed pages using normal font and margins.
Assignment Grading Guide:
The interviews and documents are sufficient, thorough, and relevant. Are discrepancies among the sources, especially between the two or more informants, adequately explained and resolved? Clear justification of the lessons from the research. Was sufficient explanation given for each lesson?What factors (obstacles?) were involved in the learning (or failure to learn), either personal or organizational? Frames and frame conflicts? Lack of feedback? Different interpretations (frame-based?) of the available feedback? Pain of change and other sources of resistance to accepting the lessons (i.e., not wanting to learn because it would imply change)?
Which lessons were already known but not applied, and why? Why were the genuinely new ones not already known? Analysis of the status of organizational acceptance and application of the lessons and the barriers, if any, to more complete acceptance and application. What would you recommend for more complete acceptance?
