Disasters: Lessons Learned?

Abstract

It is very common to find publications with ‘lessons learned’ in their titles. We all know that events are capable of teaching us, and experience can be valuable if we heed what it has to say to us. But do we really learn things? In conferences, workshops and symposia we gather together to talk about progress, but is it really happening? In times or recession, I would suggest that ‘retrogress’ is as likely as progress: budgets are cut, workers are “let go”, initiatives are ended. Because financial conservatism takes over, it is often the most innovative and adventurous programs that are abolished or downsized.