LESSONS MANAGEMENT
RECONNECT AND REFLECT: LESSONS MANAGEMENT FORUM RETURNS The last Lessons Management Forum took place in July 2019. Since then, Australian emergency managers and responders have experienced significant hazards and emergency events—including the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires, significant flood storm and cyclone activity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. ALANA BEITZ AFAC
The Lessons Management Forum, co-hosted by AFAC and the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR), returns on 22 and 23 March 2022. It will provide an overdue opportunity for lessons management practitioners to share good practice, learnings and innovations. Attendees will come together to consider the most effective way to draw lessons from the past two years and embed them into future policy and practice. The Forum will again explore lessons learned from extreme incidents and ways to manage them. There will be a broad range of presentations and workshops from various organisations, jurisdictions and sectors to explore the theme ‘What does success look like?’ The program will discuss ways to achieve demonstrable changes in behaviour, improve knowledge and encourage innovation.
What is lessons management?
At the core of lessons management is the aim to create a culture of learning. The Lessons Management Handbook (AIDR 2019) explains: Lessons management is an overarching term that refers to collecting, analysing, disseminating and applying learning experiences from events, exercises, programs and reviews. These learning experiences include those that should be sustained and those that need to improve. The goal of this activity is ongoing improvement by organisations and the people who work for them. Organisational growth and continuous improvement are particularly 36
FIRE AUSTRALIA
ISSUE ONE 2022
relevant where preservation of life is the primary goal. Consistent lessons management supports improved learning, efficient practices, better safety and shared knowledge. Well implemented lessons management practices improve the interoperability of fire and emergency agencies by establishing a common language, aggregating information and allowing for cross-agency information exchange and analysis. Large-scale events—such as the Black Summer bushfires, flood and storm events, and the COVID-19 pandemic—impact communities across borders and trigger responses from agencies in multiple jurisdictions. Reflecting on such events, sharing observations and promoting a consistent approach to lessons management provides a foundation for the emergency management sector to build collective capability and preparedness for future complex events.
Hybrid event for accessible learning
The Lessons Management Forum will run as a hybrid event in 2022, offering delegates the choice to attend either in-person at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre or online. For those attending in person, additional networking opportunities will be made available.
AFAC Lessons Management Award The winner of the AFAC Lessons Management Award, sponsored by C3 Resilience, will be announced on 22 March 2022, recognising the winner’s efforts to develop lessons management capability within their organisation and across the sector.
AFAC and its members acknowledge the continued need to develop lessons management capability across the fire and emergency services in Australia. The AFAC Knowledge, Innovation and Research Utilisation Network develops and advocates approaches that support the sharing of good practice in knowledge management, lessons management, innovation and cultural practices, to support our sector at all levels.
Lessons Management Handbook
In 2019, the AIDR launched the Lessons Management Handbook at the Forum. The handbook identifies core principles and suggests frameworks and processes to support the successful implementation of lessons management, which is integral to the continuous improvement of organisational capability, individual learning and our collective resilience. The handbook is primarily aimed at the emergency management sector, although the principles and processes can be used by any sector or organisation and are relevant to all levels of an organisation, including: knowledge and lessons practitioners individuals, supervisors, managers and leaders seeking to collect, analyse and share lessons in industry, organisations, jurisdictions or across sectors learning and development professionals.
The Lessons Management Handbook can be downloaded free from the AIDR website: www.knowledge. aidr.org.au/resources/lessonsmanagement-handbook.
