Purpose – To increase the spread and reuse of lessons learned (LLs), the purpose of this paper is to develop
a standardised information structure to facilitate concise capture of the critical elements needed to engage
secondary learners and help them apply lessons to their contexts.
Design/methodology/approach – Three workshops with industry practitioners, an analysis of over 60
actual lessons from private and public sector organisations and seven practitioner interviews provided
evidence of actual practice. Design science was used to develop a repeatable/consistent information model of
LL content/structure. Workshop analysis and theory provided the coding template. Situation theory and
normative analysis were used to define the knowledge and rule logic to standardise fields.
Findings – Comparing evidence from practice against theoretical prescriptions in the literature highlighted
important enhancements to the standard LL model. These were a consistent/concise rule and context
structure, appropriate emotional language, reuse and control criteria to ensure lessons were transferrable and
reusable in new situations.
Research limitations/implications – Findings are based on a limited sample. Long-term benefits of
standardisation and use need further research. A larger sample/longitudinal usage study is planned.
Practical implications – The implementation of the LL structure was well-received in one government
user site and other industry user sites are pending. Practitioners validated the design logic for improving
capture and reuse of lessons to render themeasily translatable to a new learner’s context.
Originality/value – The new LL structure is uniquely grounded in user needs, developed from existing
best practice and is an original application of normative and situation theory to provide consistent rule logic
for context/content structure