Lessons Management tools now available for frontline personnel

Today, Fire and Emergency published our Lessons Management Framework, supported by a new Lessons Management Policy and other tools for our frontline personnel. This mahi strengthens our commitment to continuous improvement and improving services and the health and safety of our frontline personnel, as outlined in our  2024-25 Statement of Performance Expectations(external link).  

‘By ensuring we have a national framework for continuous improvement and lessons, we can now better demonstrate where we have learned from the past to improve operations into the future,’ says Operational Assurance National Manager Trevor Brown.  

Summary of the Lessons Management Framework and Policy  

Our policy(external link) defines our approach to lessons management, emphasises the benefits of developing and sharing insights, and enhances our ability to demonstrate where lessons are learned. The policy contributes towards the organisation’s goal to build a safer, stronger, more resilient Fire and Emergency through the sharing of lessons, knowledge and learning from our experiences.  

The framework(external link) outlines our principles, methodology, organisation-wide roles, and responsibilities, as well as the means to give effect to lessons and continuous improvement. We have designed the framework in a way that acknowledges Fire and Emergency’s priority to learn from the past to improve for the future, and ensure the safety, health, and wellbeing of our people.  

Supporting resources and other initiatives 

Operational Assurance SharePoint Hub 

The new Operational Assurance Hub(external link) on SharePoint provides up to date information, insights, and updates not just on lessons management(external link), but also other Operational Assurance work programmes including operational reviews(external link) and  audits(external link).  

A network of Lessons Champions across our Districts  

We have established a network of Lessons Champions who act as the local conduit between Operational Assurance and frontline personnel. You can see who your local Lessons Champion is here(external link), on the Operational Assurance Hub. 

Highlighting lessons in our Operational Reviews   

Where a lesson has been identified, or where we can verify that a lesson has been learned, is now clearly reflected in an operational review report. This strengthens the value of our operational reviews by highlighting the key learnings from a significant incident or event for our frontline personnel.  

Fact Sheet and refreshed Feederlines Case Studies  

Feederlines case studies are the most popular item on the Portal. You may have seen the refreshed look, and a stronger focus on highlighting the lessons within the case study content. We have also created a fact sheet that outlines the purpose and benefits of feederlines, and how they support continuous improvement. 

Support to write good observations  

This resource provides information and exemplars (at firefighter and Incident Management Team level) on how to write a detailed observation for an incident or event. Good observations enable us to better analyse a success factor as well as an opportunity for improvement. 

Our lessons management methodology  

We adopted the O.I.L.L. (observation – insight – lesson identified – lesson learned) methodology as part of our framework. This educational resource provides a detailed overview of what the O.I.L.L. methodology is, how it supports us to turn an observation into a lesson learned.  

More information

New lessons management documentation can be found on the Bookshelf.(external link)