Lessons learned have become an essential tool for organizations to evolve, strengthen their processes, and reduce risks. In technical and highly critical sectors, such as oil and gas, energy, maintenance, and engineering, the ability to capture knowledge and convert it into concrete actions is a factor that determines safety, productivity, and competitiveness.
A truly operationally resilient organization does not just react to events: it analyzes its experiences, documents its lessons learned, and avoids repeating mistakes, building systems capable of anticipating failures, adapting, and continuously improving.
What are lessons learned in a management system?
Lessons learned are knowledge gained from past experiences which, when documented and shared, enable processes to be improved, failures to be prevented, and future performance to be enhanced.
They are not limited to failures or incidents. They can arise from:
- Successful projects
- Internal audits
- Corrective and preventive actions
- Daily operations
- Innovations implemented
- Undesirable events or near misses
The purpose is to transform isolated events into institutional knowledge, strengthening decision-making and actions.
Why are lessons learned important?
They prevent recurrence and strengthen resilience.
A resilient organization analyzes its experiences, identifies patterns, corrects deviations, and avoids repeating the same mistakes. This reduces the likelihood of incidents and improves the ability to recover from unplanned events.
They promote continuous improvement
Integrating lessons learned into everyday activities feeds into the PDCA (Plan–Do–Check–Act) philosophy, enabling ongoing adjustments that refine processes and increase organizational maturity.
They facilitate knowledge management
Documenting key experiences means that knowledge does not depend on individuals, but is available to the entire organization.
They support decisions based on real information
Decisions are based on evidence, data, and verified experiences, not on subjective perceptions.
Enhanced operational safety
By learning from incidents, deviations, and successes, protection systems are strengthened and operational risks are reduced.
Strategic capabilities for managing lessons learned
Effectively implementing a lessons learned system is not just about having a procedure and a format; it requires building certain strategic capabilities within the organization. These capabilities explain why the system works in some companies and fails in others, and what it really does in terms of continuous improvement, knowledge management, and operational resilience.
These capabilities are described below:
Learning-oriented organizational culture
Peter Senge describes learning organizations as those capable of creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and of modifying their behavior based on that learning. This means that the organization does not simply record incidents, but feels responsible for understanding them, sharing them, and transforming them into concrete changes.
An organization that prioritizes finding someone to blame over learning generates behaviors aimed at hiding mistakes and unfavorable data. In contrast, a learning culture allows lessons learned to become a real mechanism for continuous improvement rather than simply a file that no one consults, reducing the likelihood of recurrence and strengthening operational resilience in the face of failures and unexpected events.
This culture of openness to learning is supported by communication that promotes access to objective, verifiable, accessible information related to processes and stakeholders.
Appropriate information and technology infrastructure
Lessons learned are based on data, evidence, incident reports, audit results, and feedback from teams. Without a reliable system for recording, classifying, searching, and updating this information, knowledge management becomes fragile.
Nonaka and Takeuchi argue that organizational knowledge is created through continuous dialogue between tacit and explicit knowledge, and that organizations need structures and support to make this conversion possible. It is extremely valuable to invest in technological tools such as databases, collaborative platforms, approval flows, among others, because without these tools, learning remains scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and informal conversations.
A robust technological infrastructure allows information to become a living repository of lessons learned, accessible to new generations of professionals and useful for faster decision-making with less uncertainty. In this context, staff turnover, whether due to new hires or departures, directly influences the retention, transfer, or loss of knowledge. Therefore, having adequate technological systems in place is essential to ensure that this knowledge remains available and accessible beyond changes in the workforce.
Staff skills and training
It is not enough to ask teams to document what happened; they need to know how to analyze causes, assess risks, write clearly, and understand the impact of their findings. The literature on quality management and continuous improvement, from Deming and the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle, points out that organizational learning is based on the ability to observe, interpret, and act on the reality of processes, which is why it is necessary to invest in skills to prevent lessons learned from becoming mere superficial descriptions of events.
Each lesson must be the result of a solid analysis; for example, it must be able to justify changes in procedures, design criteria, maintenance plans, or risk mitigation strategies, and it must inform evidence-based decisions for continuous improvement.
Integration with existing management systems
The PDCA cycle, widely recognized as the basis for continuous improvement systems, proposes planning, executing, verifying, and acting on results in a systematic manner. ISO 9001 requires continuous improvement of the management system, and ISO 31000 states that risk management should be based on identification, analysis, evaluation, and treatment, with constant monitoring and review, including the incorporation of lessons learned.
The reason for this integration is that many incidents, deviations, and opportunities for improvement are already detected in audits, risk analyses, incident investigations, or performance evaluations: if the lessons learned system is not connected to these processes, valuable information is lost. The intention is to build a closed loop where findings are translated into preventive actions, incorporated into risk matrices, reflected in indicators, and ultimately converted into decisions that reinforce safety, quality, and operational resilience.
Management monitoring
Management standards, such as ISO 9001, emphasize that senior management should periodically review the performance of the system, consider the results of analysis and evaluation, and determine needs or opportunities that should be addressed as part of continuous improvement.
From the perspective of ISO 31000, the monitoring and review stage explicitly includes the use of feedback and lessons learned to adjust risk management strategies. No system can be sustained over time if management does not observe, measure, and prioritize it.
Stages of the lessons learned management process
- Collection: Identification of facts, data, and experiences.
- Classification: By type (technical, organizational, operational, human).
- Evaluation: Review of impact and prioritization.
- Validation: Review by experts or internal committees.
- Implementation: Application of recommended improvements.
- Monitoring: Follow-up on compliance and effectiveness.
- Feedback: Database updates and final communication to teams.
Responsibility management in an organizational knowledge management system
Knowledge management depends on how responsibilities are distributed and assumed throughout its cycle. It is necessary to define who generates knowledge, who analyzes and validates it, who safeguards it, and who ensures that it is used in decision-making. In this framework, lessons learned are a central mechanism because they transform individual experiences into shared assets that guide real changes in processes.
The starting point is usually the operational, technical, and analytical teams that interact directly with processes. They observe deviations, best practices, incidents, and innovations, recording relevant information about what happens in both negative events and successful experiences. To leverage this knowledge, the organization requires specialized figures to analyze and structure it. In mature environments, this function falls to specialists in reliability, quality, processes, safety, or risk management, who apply analytical methodologies to identify critical lessons learned.
Once the information has been transformed, those responsible for reviewing and validating the knowledge step in. Area managers, process leaders, or technical committees act as filters, ensuring that what is incorporated into the system is consistent, verifiable, and relevant. The goal is to convert knowledge into documented and transferable knowledge so that lessons learned can be reused.
Next, the role of knowledge custodians becomes important. These may be system administrators, document managers, or managers of each area, and their tasks include maintaining the integrity and validity of the repository. They manage the information lifecycle: they control versions, record updates, and remove or archive obsolete files.
Responsibility management is also formalized through internal policies, procedures, and standards that define what knowledge must be recorded, at what level of detail, and within what timeframes. Standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 31000 emphasize the importance of defining responsibilities and authority to ensure process consistency.
Another key aspect is the integration of responsibilities into the normal business structure. Knowledge should not be managed in parallel, but rather incorporated into work processes, job descriptions, and people management mechanisms. When the responsibility to record and use lessons learned appears in job profiles, performance objectives, induction programs, and operational meetings, learning becomes part of the professional identity of each role.
Senior management and middle management also assume specific responsibilities: reviewing indicators related to knowledge updating, implementation of improvements, recurrence of events, and the effectiveness of actions derived from lessons learned. These reviews allow resources to be adjusted, roles to be reinforced, and demonstrate that knowledge is not archived solely for compliance purposes, but rather as input for strategic decision-making. When senior management asks questions, reviews, and makes decisions based on available knowledge, it sends a clear message to the rest of the organization: learning from experience is a prerequisite for ensuring quality, safety, and operational continuity.
If you would like to learn more about knowledge management, we invite you to watch the following video, “Knowledge Management Explained in 3 Minutes.”
Conclusions
Lessons learned represent a strategic asset that drives continuous improvement, optimizes knowledge management, and increases resilience in the face of operational challenges.
A resilient organization is not one that never fails, but one that learns, adjusts, communicates, and evolves. When lessons learned are managed in a disciplined manner, they become a powerful tool for avoiding mistakes, anticipating risks, and strengthening operational excellence.
References
- Association for Project Management (APM) (2012). What is lessons learned in projects management? https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/what-is-project-management/what-is-lessons-learned-in-project-management/
- Glide (2024). Knowledge Management Explained in 3 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jHDF-YjPRM
- González, H. (2019). Calidad & Gestión – Consultoría para empresas. ISO 9001 Conocimientos de la organización. https://calidadgestion.wordpress.com/tag/7-1-6-conocimientos-de-la-organizacion/
- Luna, E. & Rodríguez, L. (2015). Cómo documentar lecciones aprendidas. https://blogs.iadb.org/conocimiento-abierto/es/como-documentar-lecciones-aprendidas/
- Rowe, S. F. (2007). Lessons learned: taking it to the next level. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2007—EMEA, Budapest, Hungary. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.