JOINT ANALYSIS LESSONS LEARNED CENTRE NATO'S LEAD AGENT JOINT ANALYSIS

Notes
LLSOs will be able to discover their existence in order to even begin the
learning process. The stakeholders must share their potential lessons.
Furthermore, no LL practitioner has the authority to implement major
changes within an organization; that is, to require other branches or
individuals to learn a given lesson and change the way they do business.
Even NATO’s Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) can
do no more than make recommendations to NATO Command Structure
leadership as represented by the Strategic Commanders. JALLC cannot
make them act on those recommendations. Leaders are free to ignore
them.
Therefore, true organizational learning only takes place when driven by
leaders. Commanders and Chiefs of Staff must prioritize lessons, assign
and track remedial actions, follow up to ensure their organization has
actually learned and, just as important, be the driving force for sharing
lessons. Leaders' LL guidance and engagement must be evidenced not
only by words, but also through prioritizing issues, endorsing, resourcing
and tasking solutions as well as by driving the sharing of lessons.
Leaders must hold stakeholders and LL practitioners accountable.
What then is the role of LL practitioners, since they do not benefit from
learning specific lessons and rarely can compel learning on the part of
those who do need to learn?
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A LL STAFF OFFICER?
The role of LL practitioners is to support leaders in ensuring the
organization is a Learning Organization, in ensuring the quality of
lessons and recommendations, and in ensuring all stakeholders are
aware of their responsibilities in the process. Finally, it is up to the LLSO
to ensure lessons are shared early and widely. Only then will a LL
Capability thrive.
Everyone in an organization has a responsibility for learning lessons, but
the LLSO is central to the organization’s efforts to engage everybody in
seeing the value of learning lessons. If people are not engaged, they see
no value and do not actively participate. It then becomes impossible for
learning to take place, nullifying the LL process.
The simplest way to get everyone involved in learning lessons is to
ensure that the LL capability is constantly demonstrating value. To do
this, the LLSO has an important role to play in conducting staff work to
support the organization’s LL process, LL information sharing and
participation in the LL community. The LLSO may also need to set up or
improve the organization’s LL capability.
All organizations will have LL procedures and tools that are tailored to
their needs. The LLSO role will be defined within this context. Typically a
LLSO will be expected to do the following:
Support the Lessons Learned Process (See Chapters 2-5)
Gather the organization’s observations, LIs and lessons learned
on a continuous basis and immediately after every activity the
organization undertakes such as missions, training events or
exercises.
Assess the status of LL information collected.
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