It is hard to spend much time around wildland fire management without hearing reference to a desire to 'learn from events'. Organizational learning refers to the absorption of insights gained at one location into the fabric of the entire community or organization. In the research literature, organizational learning is generally measured as changes in formal organizational routines, protocols, and training programs. In the wildland fire community, the most often stated intent of learning is to avoid repeating an outcome, with the goal being to gain wisdom from those most affectged and to use this story to alter the behaviors of others in similar situations elsewhere around the organization (ie., organizational learning). This places the wildland fire community's intent in the rich ground of human interaction as opposed to formal bureaucratic structure and process.

As a first step toward improving learning from events, we sought to understand the goals, nature, process, facilitators and impediments to, and succes of, organizational learning in the US wildland fire community. Through five two-day workshops we explored learning -at individual, team, and organizational levels - in the context of escaped prescribed fire reviews.

Discussions revealed learning as a multi-faceted, multi-scaled process. Improvement is more a matter of attention, focus, priority, and follow-through than new skills. We foudn that improving learning in general has as much to do with how a review is conducted as it does with the type or structure of a review. Improving organizational learning requires more precise treatment than is currently provided, specifically regarding effective transfer of lessons to an explicitly defined audience.

This presentation will highlight some of the practical suggestions that emerged for improving individual, group and organizational learning; concrete practices that may be easility adopted by conference attendees.