Lessons Learned (LL)

Lessons Learned (LL) is a NATO term for activities concerned with learning from experience to achieve improvements. NATO uses the abbreviation LL throughout its handbooks and process documents, and defines the practice in the NATO Lessons Learned Handbook.

A NATO Lesson Learned is "an improved capability or increased performance confirmed by validation when necessary resulting from the implementation of one or more remedial actions for a lesson identified." In other words, noting a problem or writing down an observation does not produce a lesson learned. The lesson is learned once action has been taken and the improvement has been confirmed.

How NATO defines a lesson learned

The definition has three parts. First, a lesson identified must exist. Second, one or more remedial actions must be implemented for it. Third, the result must be an improved capability or increased performance, confirmed by validation when necessary. The same wording appears in the 2nd edition of the handbook and in later editions, which shows the definition has stayed consistent across NATO publications.

Lesson identified versus lesson learned

NATO separates two stages that are often blurred in everyday speech.

• Lesson identified: an observed and analysed issue for which remedial action is recommended or required.
• Lesson learned: a lesson identified that has been addressed through remedial action, where the resulting improvement or increased capability has been confirmed, where necessary, by validation.

This distinction is central to the term. A report that lists problems and recommendations contains lessons identified. Only after the fix is in place and the improvement is confirmed does NATO call it a lesson learned. The NATO performance audit on lessons learned from exercises is one document that applies this vocabulary.

The Lessons Learned process and capability

NATO also uses the term for a formal procedure and for the organization behind it.

• Lessons Learned process: a formal procedure for turning observations from an activity into a lesson learned. Its purpose is to provide validated justification for changing how activities are conducted, improving performance during an operation and in subsequent operations. See the NATO LL process presentation.
• Lessons Learned capability: the structure, process and tools needed to capture, analyse and take remedial action on issues, then communicate and share the results. The NATO Lessons Learned Capability page describes this.

In a military context, NATO links the practice to reduced operational risk, increased cost efficiency and improved operational effectiveness.

What Lessons Learned means for suppliers bidding on Canadian public contracts

The NATO meaning is the established, documented one, and it is the reference point for this page. Where a solicitation, statement of work or contract uses the phrase, read it against NATO's distinction rather than as an informal comment or a general debrief. A lesson is learned only when remedial action has produced an improvement or increased capability and that result has been confirmed where required.

For a bid team, that means checking what a requirement actually asks for. Ask whether it calls for observations and recommendations (lessons identified), or for evidence of action taken and a confirmed improvement (lessons learned). Confirm the expected deliverable, timing and validation method in the solicitation documents themselves, and raise any gaps through the questions process before bid close. Suppliers working on NATO-linked activities should also be familiar with the NATO Lessons Learned Handbook vocabulary.