Learning Lessons Case Studies

Good Practices for Effective Consultation

We undertook a rapid review of recent Defra consultations on legislation and policy matters. Working with our partners, The Consultant Connection, we collected data on costs, and discussed current practice, and alternatives, with officials. We identified substantial potential cost savings, and developed 20 good practices to improve efficiency and effectiveness. We showed that 'formal written consultations' are not always necessary, or proportionate. Our recommendations - for more selective use of formal consultations, and greater use of alternative approaches - were readily accepted, and are already having a significant impact.

Good Practices for Collaboration on Policy Development

We enabled the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Trade Association Forum to define some 20 'Good practices' for better collaborative working on policy. Working with our partners, The Consultant Connection, we ran web surveys for Trade Associations and officials to learn from their experience. We then distilled draft Good practices, and developed, validated and prioritised these in two interactive Workshops. Our reports are relevant to any area where officials and stakeholder groups need to work together. The Good practices cover six areas critical to effective collaboration: leadership, understanding, networking, engagement, consultation and joint projects.

Learning Lessons in a Global Biosciences Company

We designed, facilitated, analysed and reported a ‘Lessons Learned’ Brain-Pool Workshop for a global biosciences company. The focus was on projects where unforeseen problems in formulating chemicals had led to serious costs and delays in manufacture, supply-chain distribution, and use. We worked with the participants, before, during and after the Workshop, in a series of steps, to develop ‘Symptom-Effect Statements’, ‘Generic Problem Statements’, ‘Cause Statements’, ‘Distilled Cause Statements’, ‘Good Practices’, ‘Distilled Good Practices’ and ‘Action Plans’ to implement the Distilled Good Practices. Our skills in articulating and distilling these statements for systematic review contributed greatly to the productivity of the Workshop.

Enabling Funding Bodies to Learn Lessons from their Programmes

The UK Big Lottery Fund ran nine Workshops to consult stakeholders on the Fund's proposals for a new strategy and funding priorities. The Workshops were facilitated by our partners Crystal Interactive Ltd. Through our Distil and Deliver service we collated and distilled lessons and feedback from 900 stakeholders. The final Strategy strongly reflected our inputs.