The document discusses an organization's efforts to systematically capture and share lessons learned from projects and mistakes. It outlines challenges such as lessons not being captured systematically, lack of incentives for sharing lessons, and lessons being fragmented and difficult to find. It then details various initiatives and programs the organization has implemented over time to address these challenges, including knowledge packages, learning weeks, and a lessons learned wizard. Key lessons are that organizational culture and leadership support are important for knowledge sharing, and new technologies like artificial intelligence open opportunities but quality and easy access remain challenges. Metrics for evaluating the impact of lessons captured and applied are also discussed.

1. .
Lessons: An organization’s ongoing journey towards the
nirvana of making different mistakes
Getting the organization to make different mistakes
instead of the same ones over and over is a
challenge that IFC has committed to.

3. Specific
Actionable
Timely
Impactful
A definition of good lessons…

4. What have we done to learn more about our mistakes..
SmartLessons Program
START
Knowledge
Package
Infra Post
Mortem
Technical Masterclasses.
KNovember Forum
MAS on Air
FIG Deal Sheets
20122005
2013
20132014
2016 2019
2014
CSO
Lessons
Learned
KNOWbel
Awards
2018
Project
Learning
2017
A history of our lessons programs

5. Identification &
Capture
Lessons are not
captured
systematically
Procedures &
Incentives
Insufficient to
encourage
collecting, sharing,
and reusing lessons
Fragmentation
Sources of lessons
are fragmented,
hard to find, and
inadequately
managed
Dissemination
Dissemination is
poor and ad hoc,
focused mainly on
written formats
Quality
Captured lessons
often are generic
and superficial,
providing little use
to project teams
Scope
Lessons tend to focus on
individual projects and
not on IFC’s long-term
work in a sector, country
or product, or dropped
and failed deals
What are our (and Others) Challenges?

6. K-Weeks
Encouraging what works…

7. Project Description provided by the IO at
the start of the project
Data from IFC’s
Disclosures Portal
SmartLessons data,
IEG data to be added
Data from LibraryData from IMF, CFP,
Economist
Data from WB
Operations Portal
Data from ASOP
AI: The Knowledge Package

8. • Creating space and conditions
• Right people – right time
• Facilitation
• Capture
• Review
• Dissemination
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Doing the work: Project Lessons..

9.  Organizational culture is (almost) all
 Leadership cares
 AI opens incredible new possibilities
 Lessons capture needs to be EASY, access
to lessons even easier
 Away from writing (only)
 Measurement is important and difficult
What have we learned?

10. Relevance:
– # of lessons related to IFC strategic focus
areas
– # of experts and senior staff as lessons
authors
– Balance of lessons types: success, failure,
project vs portfolio lesson
Statistics:
– # of lessons produced (written, oral, video)
– # views and downloads
– Ratings and feedback
Lessons capture and sharing activities:
– # of activities such as After-Action Reviews,
Technical Master Classes, BBLs, Learning
Weeks
– Evaluations about quality and effectiveness
Application:
– Evaluations to learn to what extent users
have applied their new knowledge and skills
back to their work, and what effect this has
had on their work performance
• Development trend
• Profitability trend
• Performance vs. benchmarks
Better decisions
• Development Impact Metrics
• Client FeedbackStronger staff capabilities
OUTCOME KPI METRICS
Measurement: Important and Difficult

11.  Encouraging what works
 Improving access
 Improving quality
 Developing new types of content
 Doing the work
 Developing ways to build the trust in small
teams to admit failure…
10 IFC wide and IFC Special Operations case study
What are we doing next about it?

12. Capture
Information
Collect Knowledge
and Prevent Loss
Become a Learning
Organization
Build
Capability
Collaborative
Environment
Facilitate
Change
CSO’s KM Goals
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13. The CSO KM Platform is a centralized repository for all CSO related
knowledge, content, activities and collaboration. It provides:
CSO KM Platform
Content Corner: An internal repository of department’s
content, knowledge and information related activities.
Project Sites: A project collaboration page that allows for
consistent document collection, retention and project
management.
Lessons Learned Wizard: A unique and smart interface that
captures lessons learned and disseminates consistently.
Internal and External: An internal (CSO-only) and an external
(IFC-wide) communication channel (websites).
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14. CSO KM Platform
Business Benefits and Value Added
Improved decision making
One-stop shop to
capture and
share our
knowledge and
combine with
IFC’s data.
Knowledge
retention and
continuity
management.
Readily available
and easily
searchable, CSO
knowledge
repository.
Win-Win: You get
more out of it
than you put in.
Increased efficiency and accuracy
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15. Year to build and
operationalize on
SharePoint
Main taxonomies
developed
Content types
implemented
Lessons learned
published
Contributing
authors
Active Projects
Sites
2 3 19
180 37
(19/18)
176
CSO’s Lessons Learned in Numbers…
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16. 15
CSO KM Site CSO Content Corner
CSO Lessons Learned Wizard CSO Project Sites
On to the Demo

17. Thank you for listening!
Questions? Comments?
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