SELLS Description and History

Description

The Society's mission is to promote the process of identifying, sharing, and utilizing operating experience from all sources to improve safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of work processes.

The Society's primary goals are to:

• Develop an organizational culture that recognizes the value of lessons learned and encourages continuous information sharing
• Maintain information sharing links across the DOE complex
• Build lessons learned networks with external organizations
• Measure the benefits gained from lessons learned programs
• Disseminate information about the Society and the Lessons Learned Process

The Society includes regular members from across the DOE community and associate members from other organizations that share similar learning goals. It is develping an informal outreach program focusing on non-DOE organizations and businesses that could benefit from adopting a process for sharing lessons learned. The Society is seeking representation from all DOE programs and strongly encourages participation of individuals committed to building stronger communication.

History

The Society is the successor to the Lessons Learned Process Improvement Team (PIT) created in March 1994. That PIT had an eighteen-month mission to develop an infrastructure for a DOE-wide Lessons Learned Program. That effort received a National Performance Review Hammer Award.

Significant milestones in SELLS history include:

December 1995	- LL PIT transitioned to SELLS
June 1996	- Display created
January 1997	- Fact Sheets developed
December 1999	- DOE-STD-7501-99 issued
April 2000	- On-line membership database launched
May 2001	- Key SELLS members join IEEE SC-5
April 2002	- Quarterly newsletter issued
October 2002	- New display created
May 2003	- Liaison with OSHA formed
June 2003	- IEEE Standard Drafted
Summer 2004	- LL Re-engineered