Lessons Learned Defined
This book is a collection of the things we have learned, mostly from our clients, over the past 25 years. Many of the lessons discussed were learned after we made an error or did something that would later prove unwise. Sometimes, our clients or close business associates advised us against doing something, but we went ahead and did it anyway. So this short collection is not a celebration of Carpedia’s collective brilliance. It is more a humble retelling of how we have learned some very import- ant lessons, all of which have shaped the culture of our company and the methods we use.
We wrote this book because it seemed to us to be an interesting way to present some very useful information, which we had not known, for one reason or another. In our experience, the work we do with our cli- ents is very much a mutual journey of discovery – of trying to figure out better ways to do things. Along the way, we’ve learned that not every- thing that looks great on paper actually works, so we always try to learn from our errors and start again. The creativity and humility this requires is what makes our line of work engaging over time. And they are a rich source for this collection of stories.
Not all the lessons learned were intuitive. Some were a little surprising, and some were the kind of thing you only learn through experience. We believe that they will prove useful to today’s managers, as they deal with the never ending challenges of trying to improve the performance of their organizations.
We hope you find Carpedia’s 52 Lessons Learned insightful and helpful to both you and your organization – especially considering the moments of embarassment we sometimes endured while learning them in the first place!