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UK Resilience Lessons Digest 5 – Learning to Manage Lessons: Webinar Summary and SpeakerReview

Writer's picture: Stephanie BullerStephanie Buller

Event Overview


This webinar, held by the UK Cabinet Office’s Emergency Planning College, focused on 'Learning to Manage Lessons,' Issue 5 of the UK Resilience Lessons Digest. It provided key insights into how emergency services and resilience practitioners are refining their approach to capturing, implementing, and embedding lessons from past incidents. The session featured expert speakers who shared valuable perspectives on interoperability, decision-making in extreme environments, and the practical challenges of embedding change across emergency response agencies.


This webinar builds on the Lessons Management Best Practice Guidance published by the Cabinet Office in September 2024. It emphasised that learning is a continuous process rather than a static outcome, necessitating a structured approach to implementing, evaluating, and embedding changes to enhance resilience strategies. The session gathered professionals from various emergency services, academia, and policy development to discuss real-world applications of lessons management, highlighting the continuum of learning and adaptation in civil contingencies and resilience.


Speaker Highlights


Hamish Cormack – Head of EPC

Hamish opened the event, introducing the webinar’s objectives and the broader importance of lesson’s management within resilience and emergency response planning. He highlighted the need for continuous learning and iterative improvement and shared best practices.


Keynote: David Russell-Parsons – Cabinet Office

David delivered a keynote briefing on the government response to the COVID-19 Inquiry and provided key updates in national preparedness. He discussed:


  • Progress in implementing the UK Resilience Framework and its implications for local and national resilience planning.

  • The establishment of the UK Resilience Academy, a national training and exercise programme to strengthen preparedness.

  • The development of an Academy Exercising Hub to improve coordination and knowledge-sharing.


Lianna Roast – Cabinet Office / UK Resilience Academy

Lianna introduced the Lessons Digest series and presented on Lessons Management, based on the Cabinet Office and UK Resilience Academy Lessons Management Best Practice Guidance. This presentation emphasised shifting culture and narrative from ‘lessons learned’ to lessons learning and lesson management. This highlighted the following key aspects; 


  • The importance of managing lessons as a structured and ongoing process rather than assuming lessons are automatically learned.

  • The role of reflective practice and documentation to ensure actionable improvements.

  • The necessity of embedding change through systematic approaches to training and exercising.


Mark Hines – Policy and Engagement Lead, IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct)

Mark spoke about making practical recommendations and the necessity for continuous reflective practice to support learning and improvement. Key insights included:


  • The importance of transparency and accountability in learning from complaints and operational reviews.

  • How effective lessons management can prevent recurring failures in law enforcement and public safety.

  • The role of multi-agency collaboration in ensuring lessons are not siloed but contribute to wider sector improvements.


Michael C. Icardi Jr., PMP – Director of Continual Improvement Programme, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency, USA)

Michael provided an international perspective on lessons implementation and action training, sharing insights from FEMA’s experience. He highlighted:


  • The importance of turning lessons into actions by integrating them into policies, procedures, and training programs.

  • Examples of real-world application of lessons learned from wildfires, hurricanes, and large-scale emergencies.

  • How structured exercising and scenario-based training improves preparedness at all levels.


Rob Simpson – Rural Crime Team Supervisor and Extreme Weather Sergeant, Cheshire Police (Cheshire Constabulary)

Rob shared a case study on winter storm exercising and stress testing preparedness to authenticate learning. His session covered:


  • How realistic and immersive training scenarios help validate assumptions and identify gaps.

  • The importance of inter-agency coordination in extreme weather responses.

  • How equipment and procedural refinements emerge from well-executed training exercises.


Dr Nikki Power – Senior Lecturer and Assistant Professor, University of Liverpool

Dr. Power presented research on lessons from the emergency services in interoperability and implementing JESIP. Her key points included:


  • The five core elements of interoperability: Communication, Flexibility, Trust, Identity, and Goals.

  • The psychological dimensions of trust in multi-agency responses.

  • Challenges in embedding JESIP principles due to financial constraints and structural barriers.

  • A newly developed Principled Implementation Framework to enhance interoperability training and execution.


This presentation is based on a study conducted by researchers from the University of Liverpool and Lancaster University, published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. It examines the efforts of UK Emergency Services to enhance inter-agency collaboration through the JESIP initiative. Research indicates that, although the JESIP principles enjoy widespread support, their implementation has proven challenging.  The authors developed the Principle-Implementation Change Framework for Interoperability (PICI) by interviewing expert commanders and identifying key factors influencing collaboration: macro-systemic, meso-organisational, and micro-psychological elements.  The research identifies barriers such as funding issues and incompatible structures alongside facilitators like improved communication, increased flexibility, and enhanced trust. It emphasises the importance of bridging the gap between change principles and practical implementation and recommends ongoing monitoring of social complexities in large-scale organisational change. 


Key Takeaways & Conclusion


The webinar reinforced the critical need for structured, evidence-based lessons management within emergency response frameworks. Recurring themes included:


  • Learning is a process, not a one-time event. Continuous improvement cycles are important for embedding best practices.

  • The role of training and exercising as fundamental tools to test, refine, and implement lessons learned.

  • Bridging gaps in interoperability through enhanced communication, trust-building, and shared training across agencies.

  • Overcoming organisational and financial barriers to ensure long-term embedding of best practices, understanding incremental pragmatic and proportionate actions.

  • Learning from international disaster responses to inform UK resilience strategies.


First and foremost, as chair of disaster science, I am thrilled to see the strength of this evidence-based approach working in practice; with over 600 registrations for the webinar and over 340 live participants on the call, the impact of the UK resilience lessons digest is clear. This has become a hugely important piece of the national resilience capability model to summarise, share, and coordinate lessons and learning.  


I genuinely enjoy and find myself highly engaged and fascinated when attending these webinars for their holistic overview and representation of each webinar topic. The choice of speakers in this instance could not have been more perfect, representing that national picture of ongoing strategic changes, local implementation, policy level guidance, scientific-based study and in particular, one I am particularly fond of because it demonstrates a multi-agency implementation based approach to disaster science, with real-world applications. My favourite phraseology was ‘authenticating learning’ by Rob Simpson. 


A final thought arises from ‘authenticating learning’ and stress-testing exercises alongside immersive and complex scenarios: my interest in exploring gamification in resilience training—a burgeoning area of focus across the UK for enhancing engagement and learning outcomes in training and exercise practices. The newly established Civil Resilience Gaming Lab UK on LinkedIn received over 100 sign-up requests in just 24 hours, indicating strong interest in exploring this field. The potential of gaming-based exercises to simulate crisis decision-making has been emphasised, along with a clear desire to integrate wargaming and simulation techniques as emerging tools in civil contingencies, reinforcing the potential for innovative approaches to enhance training and preparedness. On a personal note, this also connects to my ongoing PhD work and a question regarding the extent to which multi-hazard scenarios are currently used in UK civil contingencies training and exercises.  


As the session concluded, Liana Roast expressed gratitude to the speakers and attendees, emphasising the value of knowledge exchange in strengthening the UK's resilience capabilities. She also announced plans for UK Resilience Lessons Digest 6, promising further discussions on evolving challenges and solutions in emergency preparedness.


Overall, once again, this webinar provided a rich platform for learning and collaboration, underscoring the importance of treating lesson management as a structured, iterative process that continuously refines national and international resilience efforts. Phenomenal work by everyone involved in the production of this event and thanks to all the excellent, engaging and insightful speakers. 



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