TOOL T-35 | Documentation | Module 10: Learning, Monitoring & Institutionalization

Lesson Capture Template

WHEN TO USE After any significant conflict, coordination failure, GRM breakdown, or phase transition; at the end of each project year.

How to Use It

1. Within two weeks of the triggering event, complete this template.

2. Be specific: vague lessons ('we should communicate better') are not actionable. Specific lessons are.

3. Identify not just what went wrong but what conditions enabled the failure, these are the root causes.

4. Identify what went right, lessons from successes are as important as lessons from failures.

5. Assign specific follow-up actions: who will implement each lesson, in what form, by when?

6. Store the lesson capture in a shared location accessible to future staff.

7. At the start of each new project phase, review lesson captures from prior phases.

Purpose

A structured after-action record of what happened, what worked, what failed, and what should change, so that lessons are documented and available to inform future decisions. Unrecorded lessons are forgotten.

Field Rationale

At Nabas Aklan, strong informal SE-GRM practices had been developed over years of engagement, but they were not documented. When the key ComRel officer transitioned out, the practices largely disappeared. The lesson from Nabas Aklan's success was as important as lessons from the other sites' challenges, but it was not captured.