Rapid-Cycle Learning for Effective Remedial Action and Dissemination: Ukraine Explosive Ordnance Disposal Case Study

Rapid adaptation has always been an imperative for military organizations facing dynamic threats. Learning lessons from experience is equally familiar as a way of tackling problems to military personnel. However, militaries have often struggled to institutionalise that learning so that it becomes available at scale and in potentially strategic ways. ‘Lessons Learned’ is a highly-developed NATO process supported by a NATO Handbook, related other NATO handbooks and courses, and consultancy services from the NATO Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC). And yet our current study and recent others show that most lessons-learned systems fail to achieve their full potential impact. Just how that happens, and why that shortfall persists even in the face of direct threat, is puzzling; it indicates that learning involves far more than just resources like databases and training to collect new information.