Defining what is learned: Challenges in continuous learning and improvement

Abstract

This paper is connected to a research project called Rezbuild (REfurbishment decision making platform through advanced technologies for near Zero energy BUILDing renovation). Rezbuild is a European Union project that aims to define a collaborative refurbishment ecosystem focused on the existing residential building stock. This paper is based on a study that investigates the Rezbuild project in order to find out systematically and periodically the project partners' reflection on their experiences in the project so far. The experiences can include, among other things, best practices, lessons learned, challenges and opportunities. These findings can be translated into learning and then performance improvement. Hence, this paper embarks on the following research question: How to improve performance of a research project systematically by continuous learning? To answer this question, it is vital to define what we learn and what knowledge that we have actually gained. This paper aims to shed some light on certain vital aspects of making such definition. This is the major focus of this paper. The primary way to capture learning in the project is carried out by the following manner: Rezbuild has regular meetings with all of its partners - twice a year (in addition to more frequent online meetings). These meetings are arenas for collective reflection, sharing knowledge and experience, identifying challenges and opportunities. A questionnaire is used to capture lessons learned in a six month period between project-partner-meetings. The questionnaire too provides possibilities for reflection and hence contributes to learning. It deals with, for instance, the following issues: The degree of understanding that is obtained regarding own and other work-packages, as well as the project as whole Skills that contributed to the project and the challenges of the project during the period Improvement possibilities Most interesting result for the project partner and the corresponding organization, obtained during the period Information obtained from the project partners will be analyzed and shared regularly, so that appropriate actions can be devised to improve performance of the project.