Power of Lessons Learned
The Marriage with caveats; New year, new Mindset; 1700+ PMs joined, You should too
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What's Inside This Edition:
🔌 What’s new from PMI? The Marriage with caveats.
🔥 Power of Lessons Learned
📣 Do it Together
🧳 New year, new Mindset
My personal invitation to You, if you are committed to pass PMP in 8 weeks.
How it works? Here is the description: PMP Fast Track Private Invitation
What’s new from PMI? The Marriage with caveats.
Newsflash:
The Agile Alliance is joining forces with PMI.
This sparked intense debate in the project management community.
Question I hear floating around: Is this “marriage” threatens the Agile principles?
My feedback:
“Changes are good and will lead to innovation.”
Certainly this merger will be an oppotunity to grow.
Here is the announcement:
Agile Alliance is a global non-profit membership organization founded in 2001 by some of the original authors of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. This partnership strengthens the project management profession by expanding access to Agile resources, broadening skill sets, and fostering a flexible mindset.
The future of project management—centered on project success driven by delivered value—cannot rely on rigid distinctions between delivery approaches. The integration of Agile Alliance within PMI further solidifies PMI’s leadership in transforming the project profession. PMI Agile Alliance will benefit from PMI’s global reach and resources, while PMI members will gain expanded access to Agile thought leadership, tools, and resources, enhancing their professional development and enabling greater project success.
As reference, Agile Alliance:
Agile Alliance is a nonprofit organization with global membership, supporting and serving the Agile community since 2001. Agile Alliance supports people who explore and apply Agile values, principles, and practices to make building solutions more effective, humane, and sustainable.
Power of Lessons Learned
Throughout my 15 years leading complex projects, I've found that while every project naturally teaches us something, it's the systematic capture and analysis of lessons learned that transforms individual experiences into organizational wisdom.
A well-structured lessons learned session is more than just a project retrospective – it's a critical knowledge transfer mechanism that prevents the same mistakes from being repeated and allows successful practices to be replicated across the organization.
When my teams conduct lessons learned sessions and document our findings, we're not just checking a box in the project closure process. We're creating an invaluable knowledge asset that helps future project teams avoid pitfalls we've already encountered and build upon our successes. This documentation becomes part of our organizational DNA, enabling teams to start from a more advanced position rather than reinventing the wheel.
From my experience, the most impactful lessons learned reports don't just list what went right or wrong – they provide context, explain the root causes, and offer specific, actionable recommendations that other project managers can implement.
This transforms individual project experiences into a practical playbook for organizational success.
What Actually Works
You can capture lessons learned at any point during the project timeline.
In fact, depending on the complexity of the project, you may want to conduct a lessons learned session at the end of each project management phase, in order to capture information when it’s still fresh.
That way, you can evaluate what went well, what went wrong, and what you can learn from it.
The 4-step process of lessons learned
Step 1: Identify
First, you'll need to identify lessons from the project so that you can document them.
Step 2: Document
Doing lessons learned is only helpful if you share them with the entire team and keep them for further reference.
Create a detailed lessons learned register with all the critical project information and discussion notes. Then, write an executive report of the lessons learned for the project team (and stakeholders).
Step 3: Analyze
Review the information from the lessons learned survey and meeting for high-level patterns or threads. You'll want to do this as soon as possible while it's fresh (and you can avoid similar issues in ongoing work).
Step 4: Incorporate
Like any habit, making it part of your routine (operations) is the hard part. Turning it into a (mini) project of its own can help you to make the most of this practice.
The best way to share your findings is to create a register and communication strategy depending on the audience.
What to give stakeholders?
Stakeholders will be interested in budgetary concerns, profit margins, and long-term timelines or deadlines. They aren't too concerned with how you'll do it, so a high-level overview would work fine.
source: *motion.com
Do it Together
Last year, in 2024, 1700+ project managers joined my FREE PMP Webinars. Which is amazing, around 37 attendees on each week.
Date: Thursday, Jan 16th
Topic: PMP Made Easy Webinar - 8 weeks study plan - Pass PMP before it changes
Host: Gabor
Link to register: https://gaborstramb.com/webinar-registration
Adopt a Forward-Thinking Mindset
Project managers often operate in the present, but success in 2025 will require a forward-thinking mindset. Anticipate challenges by staying informed about emerging trends, technologies, and global shifts that could impact your projects. For instance, consider how advancements in AI or remote work dynamics might shape team collaboration and project execution.
Being forward-thinking also means embracing adaptability. Change is accelerating, and project managers must be prepared to pivot quickly. Cultivate a mindset that views change as an opportunity rather than a disruption. This perspective will empower you to lead with confidence in uncertain times.
Preparing for the Future:
Stay informed about emerging technologies like AI and automation.
Anticipate how global trends could impact your industry or projects.
Develop contingency plans for potential challenges.
Embrace adaptability as a core leadership trait.
Regularly review and adjust your strategies to remain competitive.
Like this? Continue reading Daniel Hemhauser Article
Navigating in Project Management Career is not easy, feel free to reach out: find me on LinkedIn, YouTube, Udemy or Book a 1:1 Call
My personal invitation to my PMP Fast Track Program:
We aim to help you pass your PMP Exam in just 8 weeks, studying only 1–2 hours a day, with a 99.999% success rate and over 700 project managers already certified.
In just 8 weeks, we’ll guide you through the PMP Fast-Track System, built around 3 core components………Learn more here: Time to Pass