Pause to Reflect: The Presence of Possibilities
Remind me never to do that again.
Let that be a lesson to you!
Keep the best, forget the rest.
Same shit, different day…
Reflection is the simple practice of taking another look at a situation and getting clear about what happened, what worked, and what didn’t. It is a seemingly automatic cognitive conversation that happens in our minds. Most of us do it all the time whether we are aware of it or not. If you are a #facilitationnerd like us, then you also know that reflection is a key component of any group interaction; an essential conversation among people that creates the bridge between an experience and an insight.
Reflection is valuable for us personally and also professionally. We can reflect alone or together; in teams, communities, and organizations. Reflection is a vehicle for developing self-awareness, resilience, motivation, energy management. It helps support informed decision-making and deliberate action.
Unsplash - Inga Gezalian
David Kolb described learning as the process where “knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” and described an experiential learning theory that reveals how reflection fosters wisdom. It feels like now more than ever, in these ambiguous times, we could use a little reflection in our lives to help us learn from our current situation and make some meaning.
Reflection is a skill that can be developed. In his book The Reflective Practitioner, organizational design guru Donald Schön outlined two types of reflection: Reflection-on-action (when we look back at something that happened in the past) and reflection-in-action (when we have a real-time conversation within the present moment). Both are pathways to learning more about ourselves and our efforts and foster growth. Like any other skill, it requires practice to build this “muscle” so here are a few suggestions of things to try alone or with others:
Look Back: To the future through the past.
Some examples of Reflection-on-Action include the sprint retrospective (agile), after-action review (AAR in the military), meeting debriefs, coaching conversations, design critiques, parenting (yikes! So true!).
A quick and easy way to get started is to ask these 3 questions of something in the past:
What? What are the facts, describe the experience, the actions, the outcomes...
So what? Do a little analysis… What worked? What didn’t? Why or why not?
Now what? What might be done differently (or the same) in the future, what promising practices and lessons learned can we extract?
Look Around: The present of the present
Some examples of Reflection-in-Action include your inner dialogue in a meeting, the discussion you have with a colleague in the midst of collaboration (when you are talking more about the “how” than the “what”), that pep talk you gave yourself as you rumbled through a difficult conversation with your teenager,
This type of reflection can also be described as “metacognition” or thinking about thinking. A simple way to practice is to get mindful of the present moment and bring your awareness to your thoughts. Once you are aware of your thoughts, you can start to ask yourself questions about where they come from or what inspires them. We are big fans of the Headspace app for practicing mindful meditation!
Look Forward: Facing ambiguous situations
Reflection can also happen in anticipation of an event, a sort of “preflection” where we use our imagination to cast forward into possible futures to play with potential. This type of thinking is particularly helpful when we face ambiguity. It helps us stay present to the discomfort of uncertainty as we explore possibilities in a positive mental state.
Postcards from Ambiguity
Every week we share prompts for reflection to support reflective practices during these ambiguous times. They are available in our CoCreACT® community so please join us there! We provide inspiration and resources to continue to develop your reflection skills and your capacity to face ambiguity!