Lessons learnt

One of my senior colleagues had once commented - "Is it lessons learnt? or are they just mistakes made?" Indeed - It can only be proven that a lesson is learnt if the same mistake is not repeated !! This is the reason why lessons learnt are recorded in an official 'document' at the finish of a project or a phase - so that the record may be used in other projects and a repetition may be averted.

Whenever, my project manager or an auditor asks me to write the lessons learnt during the project, I scratch my head. For a 'fairly qualified and experienced person' like me 😄 , there are truly just a few 'technical' lessons learnt. 

That is about the technical part of it. But there is no denying the fact that each project is an experiential ocean !! I mean each project is an experience in itself and each time there is an improvisation in whatever we do and the way we do it. So, what was the ACTUAL lesson/s learnt and whether it will really be useful in another situation, for another project, in another time, for another client? 

Can everything be written down exactly in black and white? I think no.  The 'ACTUAL' or the 'REAL' lessons learnt are more about how you should deal with a situation? how should you react to it? How should you communicate? What kind of people could be around you? What type of management principles did and should you apply to which kind of people? Should you deal with a particular kind of person roughly or with empathy? What works? Should you leak your other side in a party? 😄 . These are the kind of lessons learnt which register deep in your sub conscious. Rarely can you describe it, let alone put it down on an official piece of paper to be used for generations of people in the organization !!