In an ever-changing world an armed force needs to adapt and learn from its mistakes. To do this it needs to have a working lessons-learned process and the Swedish army is in the developing phase of such a process. But how does it hold up against previous lessons-learned processes and what can be learned from these? The essay investigates the Swedish lessons-learned process used during its ISAF contingents between 2009-2013 and compare it to the process the Swedish army is developing today with the help of Dysons model for lessons-learned processes. The essay finds that, while some improvements have been achieved, there are certain factors that still needs to improve. Most importantly the understanding of what a lesson learned is and how to use it needs to be improved. This will help the organization in the other areas, such as knowledge management, dissemination, and transformation. Another area in need of development is the knowledge management IT-system. The study finds that further studies needs to be done in knowledge transformation within the organization. Further studies also need to be done regarding how the organization handles the lessons learned process in the units.

Organizational learning and management have been studied and researched for a long time, numerous of theories regarding the matter has been published and used withing the civilian sector and business. Military organizations are just as dependent on a working knowledge management system as the civilian sector.  Tom Dyson has previously conducted a case study within the NATO organization and some of its member countries and found problem areas with their way of managing experiences and ways to implement previously learned lessons.  This study aims to use Dyson’s theory regarding organizational learning within military organizations and apply them to the Swedish armed forces common handbook for knowledge management to determine if the Swedish way is suffering in any department, or if the common handbook is sufficient for an organization which require good and a well working knowledge management system. The result from the study shows that the Swedish armed forces do enforce most of Dyson’s criterions for a well working knowledge management system but are lacking in incorporating a common system for the personal within the organization to use, share and learn from previous lessons.