I won’t get into the old argumentabout whether an L&D person (designer, developer, trainer, or producer)needs a specialized degree. I will say that one of the most interesting anduseful grad courses I ever took had nothing to do with L&D in general orthe technical aspects of my work in particular.
It was a course for new doctoralstudents called Reflective Practice, and it was one of the most wonderfullearning experiences of my adulthood. Per Donald Sch?n, reflective practice isthe “capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuouslearning”—a defining characteristic of professional practice. The course meantto expand my capacity as well as help me shift my work identity from “worker”to “practitioner”—a distinction that has made all the difference in how I enactmy work now.
Why?
Well, essentially, reflecting onyour own experiences helps you learn. And when done well it may be the best professionaldevelopment you’ll get. Out of the moment we can step away to reconstruct theevents, the politics, and our emotions. We may not always recall a perfectpicture—memory being what it is—but reflection can help us see mistakes orperhaps connect dots we’d missed before. Making reflection a deliberate part ofour work can help break the common cycle of busily going from project toproject while unwittingly making the same mistakes. Articulating, even toourselves, why we made this choice or how we made that decision can make usbetter able, next time, to articulate ideas to management or otherstakeholders.
It can also help to intellectualizeour practice, by becoming clearer about our own philosophies of teaching andlearning, our views of learners and our work, and then helping us to reconcileideal with reality and theory with practice. Ultimately, consciously working tobecome a reflective practitioner can help us work more efficiently andeffectively, enacting more skilfully while finding more satisfaction in thework that we do.
Side note: I sometimes createPinterest boards in anticipation of #lrnchat, as they offer a quick way to getparticipants up to speed quickly with a topic. None I’ve done drew more attention than this one on metaphors for teaching andlearning. I received a dozen messages about it, mostly on the theme of, “Ididn’t realize that the way I saw our workers was playing out in the way Idesigned my courses.”
How? Tips for reflecting
- We’re all busy. We go on to the next thing—oftenmaking the same mistakes repeatedly. Or we’re putting out fires rather thanpreventing them in the first place. Try to recognize the time spent on reflectivepractice as an investment that will save time and energy on future work.
- Depending on the nature of your work you mighttry to set aside a time, like over morning coffee or the last 10 minutes of theworkday, to reflect on recent events. Or at the end of a project, after ameeting, upon closing a sale or getting signoff on an idea, or after ending arelationship with a client or vendor. A recent #lrnchat conversation onreflection made one thing clear: Those who engaged in reflective practicetended to have a format and schedule for it. They regard it as an intentional,regular thing, so important that respondents carve out time and plan for it.
- Remember to go beyond just this-decision,that-idea. What do those decisions and ideas say about your practice? How doesyour philosophy of teaching and learning (the learner is just an actor in asystem; all knowledge can be codified; learners can’t be trusted; learners areinherently self-directed) affect that practice overall? Do you need to make changes?
- Navigate around the monsters that keepreflection from happening, including self-imposed ones like procrastination,self-doubt, and hesitation to face facts, and cultural ones like demand forquantification (“ROI!”) and what Clark Quinn calls working in the “Mirandaorganization,” where everything you say can be used against you.
- If nothing else, just take a breath and do aquick postmortem before you shift gears to the next thing: “I did a good jobarticulating my vision for the final product, but I grossly underestimated thetime for development and beta testing.” “I feel like the product itself isgood, and it met the stated specs. But I’m still not convinced a course is thebest answer for this. I really need to brush up on my negotiation skills so Ican help that go better.”
- Nudge. When I was editing From Analysis to Evaluation, RandyWoodward, Training & Development Director at Ho-Chunk Nation, shared a “smilesheet” evaluation form for trainers to turn in along with the ones completed bylearners. It asks for the trainers’ perception of the day. The right audience?People prepared to be there? Anything unusual about this class? The form ismeant to alert management to issues and trends while helping the trainer tojust take a bit of time and consider this experience before moving on to thenext.
- Just say it in your head to yourself. Write itby hand on an index card or a legal pad. Keep a journal. Blog it. Draw it. UseSiri to post it to Evernote. Use a text tool to annotate photos. Post a voiceclip to your phone. Ask for feedback. Hire a coach.
- Need more help? Here’s an exercise (in theSidebar) to help you get started.
Sidebar: ReflectionExercise (from Show Your Work: The Payoffs and How-To’s of Working Out Loud)
If reflective practice is new foryou, begin by ending a task, particularly a big one, by asking yourself somebasic questions. Consider things like:
What do I know about now that I didn’t know when I started?
Why did this particular (event, barrier, success,accident) happen? How can it be explained?
What can I do differently next time? How could I have made this go faster,better, more smoothly?
What political issues emerged?
A problem I ran into was ___________________
I fixed it, overcame it, or circumvented it by ______________________
How did the outcome measure up to my expectations?
How well did the actual reflect my estimates on time, challenges, difficulty, orpeople?
I could not fix, overcome, or circumvent it because ___________________
Did this highlight any deficiencies in my preparation, training, or skilllevel? What do I need to do to correct that?
What assumptions did I make? How valid were these? How did they affect what Idid?
What do I know about __________ now that I didn’t know when I started?
Why did___________ happen? How I explain it?
What did I learn from this?
Finally: Is this something worth sharing via a blog post orcoffee conversation or quick video or with a mentor or coach? Who else mightbenefit from knowing about your experience and reflections on it? And wouldthere be value to you, in way of getting feedback that might help sharpen yourvision beyond the subjectivity your own blinders create?
Orif Nothing Else:
If all that’s too much considerjust putting an index card in a visible spot and as you finish something take aminute to reflect:
- Whatwas the best thing I did, and why?
- If I did this again tomorrow, what would I dodifferently?
- Whatdid I learn from this?
We spend a lot of time in this businesstalking about how to do things: build it, program it, deliver it, launch it, orsell it. We don’t spend much thinking about what to do after we’ve actuallydone it. Consider investing more time in working toward improving in thefuture, reconciling your walk with your talk, and building your role as apractitioner in a professional pursuit.
Some material adapted from Bozarth,J. Show Your Work: The Payoffs andHow-To’s of Working Out Loud. Wiley. 2014.
Want more?
This was a very quick overview.Google around for more information on reflective practice. If you’re reallyinterested in the academic side of this, take a look at the syllabus from theReflective Practitioner course I mentioned.
Gawande, A. Complications : A Surgeon’sNotes on an Imperfect Science. Picador.2003. This is an excellent first-person example of a reflectivepractitioner in action.
Schön, D. The Reflective Practitioner, How Professionals ThinkIn Action. Basic Books. 1983.
