From lessons learned to decisions made: how to build a learning agenda

5 min read

A learning agenda is a short set of priority questions tied to upcoming decisions, with the activities, owners, and timing needed to answer them. It starts from the decision leaders must make, not from the data already collected. Its purpose is to get the right evidence to the right people while it can still change what they do.

Many organizations write lessons learned that never change a decision. The evidence arrives after the budget is set, or it sits in a report no one reads. Over time, the same mistakes repeat, staff stop expecting data to matter, and funders see no sign that the program adapts.

Why lessons learned often change nothing

The problem is rarely a lack of data. Many programs collect more data than they use, because no one asked which decisions the data should inform. Learning becomes a section at the end of a report, written once a year, rather than a routine that feeds real choices.

A learning agenda reverses the order. It names the decisions first, then works out what evidence those decisions need and when. US federal agencies use the same idea. The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 requires major federal agencies to develop evidence-building plans, which federal guidance calls learning agendas (Public Law 115-435). A nonprofit’s learning agenda is far smaller, but the logic is the same.

The six steps of a learning agenda

At Edit Right Advisors, we build learning agendas with Learning Ladder, the learning agenda model in our Learning Loop framework. It climbs six steps, then returns to the start for the next decision.

1. Decision needed

Name the decision leaders face and when they must make it. Good examples are concrete: whether to expand to a second district next year, whether to keep a service model, or how to redesign an outreach approach. “Learn more about our impact” is not a decision.

2. Priority questions

Turn each decision into a few learning questions, and rank them. Keep the list short. Three well-chosen questions that get answered are worth more than 15 that do not.

3. Evidence synthesis

Bring together the evidence that answers each question: monitoring data, evaluations, feedback from participants, and relevant outside research. Summarize what the evidence shows and how confident you can be in it.

4. Facilitated reflection

Discuss the evidence with the people who decide. A facilitated session keeps the conversation on the question, makes room for frontline staff to speak, and separates what the data shows from what people hoped it would show.

5. Documented action

Record the decision and the action agreed, with an owner and a date. Unrecorded decisions are easy to forget, and the next meeting often reopens them.

6. Follow up and adjust

Check what happened after the action, and adjust if needed. Then return to step one for the next decision.

Methods that feed the agenda

Different questions need different evidence. Learning Ladder draws on four sources:

• Evaluations, for questions about whether and why a program worked
• Outcome Harvesting, developed by Ricardo Wilson-Grau and colleagues, which starts from changes that have already happened and traces back how far the program contributed to them (Wilson-Grau and Britt, 2012)
• Most Significant Change, developed by Rick Davies and later refined with Jess Dart, which asks people for stories of change, then has groups choose the most important ones and explain why (Davies and Dart, 2005)
• Pause and reflect sessions (a USAID CLA practice), which are short, planned reviews of progress with the team

Outcome Harvesting and Most Significant Change are useful because they capture change that predefined indicators can miss, including unintended change. They work best alongside monitoring data, not instead of it.

Products people will use

Evidence reaches leaders through short, usable products. A 40-page report rarely changes a decision. A two-page brief, a simple dashboard, or a well-chosen story of change often does.

Match the product to the reader and the moment. A board deciding on next year’s budget needs a brief with options. A program team adjusting outreach needs a dashboard they can check each month. A funder wants to see both the evidence and what you did with it.

How learning connects to monitoring and evaluation

Learning is one ring of Learning Loop, our monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) framework. The first ring makes evidence trustworthy: plan, collect, verify, and evaluate. The second ring makes evidence change things: reflect, decide, adapt, and document. The two meet at evidence to decision, where findings reach the people who decide, at the moment they decide.

This approach adapts collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA), a framework developed by USAID. CLA links learning and adaptive management with the enabling conditions of culture, operating processes, and resources (USAID CLA Framework, archived copy). Learning Ladder uses data checked through Data Diamond, and its documented lessons feed Strategy Studio when direction or program design needs to change.

Frequently asked questions

What is a learning agenda?

It is a short set of priority questions tied to upcoming decisions, with the activities, owners, and timing needed to answer them.

How many learning questions should we have?

Few enough that each one gets answered before its decision. For most programs, that means a handful of priority questions at any one time.

Do funders care about learning?

Many do. Funders want to see that programs adapt based on evidence, and a documented learning agenda shows how you do it.

Talk it through

Learning Ladder is part of SS-03 Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL), delivered through Learning Loop. If your lessons learned rarely change a decision, Book a free call. We will talk through the decisions in front of you and the evidence they need. You can also reach us at hello@editright.io or +1 314 998 0221.

Sources

• Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, Public Law 115-435 (GovInfo). Accessed October 27, 2026.
• Ricardo Wilson-Grau and Heather Britt, Outcome Harvesting (Ford Foundation MENA Office, May 2012). Accessed October 27, 2026.
• Rick Davies and Jess Dart, The ‘Most Significant Change’ (MSC) Technique: A Guide to Its Use (2005). Accessed October 27, 2026.
• USAID, Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting Framework and Key Concepts, Implementing Partner Version 1.0 (July 2022), archived copy. Accessed October 27, 2026.