Sharing Lessons Learned
Workplace safety is inextricably tied to the culture – the leadership, management and organization – of the entire company. Nor is a safety lesson fundamentally different from any other business lesson. With these points in mind, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recast its lessons learned program in 2000. The laboratory retained elements of a traditional lessons learned program, such as tracking and trending safety metrics, and added a best practices element to increase staff involvement in creating a safer, healthier work environment. Today, the Lessons Learned/Best Practices program offers the latest business thinking summarized from current external publications and shares better ways PNNL staff have discovered for doing things. According to PNNL strategic planning director Marilyn Quadrel, the goal is to sharpen the business acumen, project management ability and leadership skills of all staff and to capture the benefits of practices that emerge from lessons learned. A key tool in the PNNL effort to accelerate learning from past mistakes is one that can be easily implemented by other firms and tailored to their specific needs. It is the weekly placement of Lessons Learned/Best Practices articles in the lab’s internal electronic newsletter. The program is equally applicable in highly regulated environments, such as the national laboratories, and in enterprises that may have fewer external requirements imposed on their operations. And it is cost effective, using less than the equivalent of one fulltime person to administer.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 945236
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-42254; TRN: US200902%%1219
- Journal Information:
- Occupational Hazards, 66(9):57-59, Vol. 66, Issue 9
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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