Impetus - Europa

TRAINING
Lessons Learned -
Everybody’s Business
By Commander Charlie Robinson and Lieutenant Colonel François-Régis Dabas, Concepts and
Capability Directorate.
Preamble
The EU Member States recent endorsement of the
EU Military Lessons Learned Concept was a
significant step towards improving the
development of Lessons Learned - but, argue
Commander Charlie Robinson and Lieutenant-Colonel
François-Régis Dabas, from the EUMS, there is more to
be done if we are to optimise the potential in this area
and there are many actors who have important roles
to play if this is to be achieved.
Introduction
The recent agreement by all EU Member
States to endorse the EU Military
Lessons Learned (LL) Concept
highlights the increasing
importance being placed on the
need to efficiently capture and
learn from lessons from across the
CSDP spectrum and beyond. The agreement
of the Concept was the culmination of 10 months
work, involving a Food For Thought Paper, informal and
formal workshops (involving both EU and non-EU
participants) and extensive discussion at the EU Military
Committee Working Group level.
The Concept in a nutshell
In broad terms the aim of the
concept is to provide an
overarching LL Concept, the core
of which is a revised process,
which develops and improves the
military contribution to CSDP. In
addition to including a revised LL
process the document covers the
key areas of impact or contribution
that the lessons organisation
should play, highlights the
important principles which
underpin a successful LL
organisation and emphasises the
linkages which the LL process
should have with other related EU
projects.
Drawing on the experience and
knowledge gained from existing
LL structures from Member States
information pushing
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and other international organisations, the EU Military
LL Concept includes a revised process which seeks to
convert verified lessons observations, through a series
of analysis, endorsement and development action into
fully resolved and implemented lessons learned. The
overall process (outlined in Figure 1) is focused in 4
Phases: Collection and Verification; Analysis;
Development; and Outputs - with each of these
phases linked directly to Lessons Observations,
Lessons Identified and Lessons Learned, which are all
separately defined in the Concept. The revised process
supports the overall aim of shifting the emphasis of
LL as driver for transformation, by proving to be an
informative command tool, fully
integrated into the operational cycle
and providing real benefits to
CSDP activities. There are many
ways to achieve this including
expanding the range of the
collection effort, adopting moves
towards a more ‘information-pushing’
rather than an ‘information-pulling’ system and
lastly conducting the lessons process in parallel with
the planning, conduct and recovery phases of specific
military CSDP operations.
Figure 1: The EU Military LL Process (ELPRO).