Experience-based knowledge from the Swedish Armed Forces: a comparison between groups and individuals

Abstract

A serious weakness in several organizations seems to be that numerous experiences are poorly reported. Unfortunately, there is little research conducted in the military field; on the contrary, there is an urgent need in several organizations to get a lessons learned process implemented. The aim of this paper is to compare group performances with individual performances and to determine whether groups will produce more mature experience-reports than individuals. The study was conducted within the Swedish Armed Forces; all participants were soldiers previously deployed on international missions. The results showed that groups produced somewhat better reports than individuals; however, individuals produced a higher quantity of reports per person than groups. It therefore appears to be pointless to report in groups, at least as was done in this study, since the extra effort it takes does not justify the small improvement.

Keywords:

• experience-based knowledge
• after action reviews
• knowledge sharing
• consensus-effort
• critical discussion
• experience-report
• lessons learned process

Notes

1 According to NATO’s Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC), the quality of a report is dependent on if; the issue is relevant, the report is logically convincing, the context is well described, the root cause is identified, the issue was unknown to the organization and finally if the report is comprehensible.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ulrica Pettersson

About the Author

Ulrica Pettersson is employed by the Swedish Armed Forces and holds a Ph.D. in Engineering (Risk Management and System Engineering). Her research is concerned with lessons learned and organizational learning, with a focus on international military missions.