Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Let That Be A Learned Lesson
Jeff Oltmann has over 25 years of experience developing new products and managing successful programs. His specialties include strategy deployment, project excellence, and program and portfolio management. He is principal consultant at Synergy Professional Services.
After a difficult project is completed, taking time to lead a retrospective may be the last thing you or the team want to do. But a structured review can provide valuable benefits and, it just might make the next project less difficult. Here are some best practices for leveraging lessons learned through project retrospectives.
Retrospectives are structured ways to gather “lessons learned” from those who know best — the people who worked directly on a program or project. Project leaders use what was learned to improve the processes, tools, capabilities and behaviors of their organization. These improvements make future projects more successful.
Unfortunately, retrospectives are unnatural. Esteemed software consultant and author Norman Kerth, sometimes cited as the “father of retrospectives,” says, “It is not natural for us to stop, reflect and learn. … I am usually worn out at the end of one of my alligator-infested swamp-draining projects. … The act of reflecting on my just-finished project is not naturally a high priority. Yet it is the key to ensuring that my next project will have less water to drain and fewer alligators to manage.”
Despite this obstacle, investing in good retrospectives delivers three important benefits: 1) improves the capabilities of people who …
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
ADVERTISEMENTS
|
Conformity's an obsession with me. - George Costanza |