This paper describes a case study, examining the problems of capturing, disseminating and benefiting from lessons learned from projects within the project management department of a large, information‐intensive organisation. A set of recommendations to improve the organisation's involvement with ‘lessons learned’ is derived, and how these recommendations are relevant to a wider range of organisations is considered. The literature associated with lessons learned was used to direct research into the project management department of the selected organisation through the use of focus groups and questionnaires to determine why their lessons learned process is not as effective as required. The key barriers to lessons learned were found to be culture, motivation and a lack of process. Furthermore, a large percentage of the project management community was found to be unaware of any lessons learned system and found it hard to access and share lessons with other project managers. The paper therefore provides a set of recommendations to overcome these barriers concerning immediate actions and strategies for the future. The recommendations have received very positive feedback from the employees of the organisation. The paper concludes that the provided recommendations are adaptable to a wide range of organisations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.