Learning from Mistakes

Every time we facilitate for clients, I make it a point to come back with a retrospect.
A retrospect form is a simple tool where we list things that either went very well or didn't. Then we list the things that caused it to turn out that way and finally decide how things should be done differently the next time. At a recent workshop, we reviewed previous reports and found it to be quite useful to prepare for the next one.
As always, its the content that matters. Sometimes, Some people have such high expectations that they are unable to see the good things they do and events are lumped together such that its not easy to see which aspects can be improved and which need to maintain. Others can be so pessimistic that they think everything went beyond their expectations and nothing much can be improved.
All said, but that the most important part of the exercise is being able to look at the expectations objectively and identify the causes. For some its always reported as someones' fault i.e. "so and so did not..." which the actions to prevent recurrence becomes "so and so should not..." Tone others look at methods and propose controls, which is a good way to go.
Its important that we avoid blame, but to Step back and look at processes objectively. At the end of the day, blame doesn't help improve. Processes can be changed, not actions.
All said, Sometimes improvements like this can only be pointed out during reviews. I guess I'll just have to grit my teeth in the meantime.