I attended the Lessons Management Forum (LMF) in person for the first time this year. The forum held particular relevance for me and for our handbook writer, Natalie Connell, as we have begun the task of reviewing and updating the Lessons Management Handbook.

Held in Brisbane – where we were met with 2 days of uncharacteristically persistent rain – the forum brought together people from a wide range of organisations and sectors involved in lessons management, organisational learning, evaluation and knowledge sharing. 

This year’s forum stood out for several reasons. When LMF ‘OG’ Mark Cuthbert asked how many attendees were at their first forum, around 70–80% of hands went up, pointing to a growing community of practice. It was also the first time that lessons, learning, and evaluation in disaster recovery had a strong presence, with seven presentations focused specifically on recovery. 

The program committee curated a diverse and engaging program, and while there were many highlights, a few that particularly stood out to me included: 

• Alistair Stark’s concept of institutional amnesia, which resonated strongly with experienced practitioners 

• the City of Gold Coast’s impressive lessons dashboard – the envy of many in the room 

• AIDR’s Lauren Lombardi presenting with Erin Pelly on how the Australian Red Cross Emergency Services Monitoring and Evaluation Framework is applied in recovery operations 

• Mark Cuthbert’s candid and provocative reflections on the state of lessons management in Australia, including the need to place greater emphasis on learning before events as well as after 

• Gemma Parkin’s engaging facilitation of the ‘newbies guide to lessons management’ workshop, which offered a valuable opportunity to slow down and dig into the fundamentals of the lessons management cycle. 

A strong theme throughout the forum was that while we have become more effective at identifying lessons, embedding them into organisations as sustained, learned practice remains a shared challenge. 

On a personal note, as a qualitative social researcher, I came away with a renewed appreciation of the alignment between thematic analysis in social research and lessons analysis, including OILL (observation, insight, lesson identified, lesson learned). The forum also surfaced a range of new and evolving ideas that we will look to incorporate into the revised handbook. 

Following the forum, we held the first of what will no doubt be many workshops to support the review and update of the handbook. Thank you to the participants who gave up additional time at the end of a busy week to contribute in person and help launch this work. 

Next steps include a series of topic-specific drafting workshops and confirming the direction of the revisions with the handbook working group.