Recently we received some constructive feedback from an important customer.  She was pleased with the result of our collaborative efforts.  In fact, projects were progressing in extremely positive ways.  She was very satisfied.  And, she acknowledged that there was room for improvement in our service.  She suggested that we could be more diligent and supportive in our follow-up.  Specifically, after a project is implemented, we need to set up discussion time to check progress, gather feedback, share insights and identify lessons learned. 

This is a big challenge for many internal consultants.  When we serve multiple customers, we have to focus our efforts and follow a consistent process in order to manage all the tasks/activities and to minimize risks on multiple projects.  In our practice we just keep moving .  But consistent, careful follow-up and evaluation can lead to improvements, rewards, recognition and success.

Follow-up and evaluation are the keys to continuous improvement.  Sometimes a tool is helpful to add structure to these kinds of critical conversations.  One we will definitely be using more often is the Lessons Learned Analysis tool.  lessons-learned-analysis-tool

This is a simple project management technique that helps teams articulate, document and share specific Lessons Learned in order to build organizational knowledge and capability and improve results.  We have reformatted this tool to make it simple and offered a step-by-step guide on using this with teams.  We hope you find this tool valuable and would love to hear stories about how you use it.