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Foster Critical Reflection

ADULT LEARNING EXPERTS Jack Mezirow¹⁷ and Stephen Brookfield¹⁸ suggest that one of the primary ways adults learn is through reflection. To transform our thinking, there is a need for critical reflection. This assists learners in confronting their political, economic, social, and cultural viewpoints—becoming more aware of how these (and others) affect their views of the world.

Encouraging your team members to understand the reasoning behind policies, procedures, and cultural norms will assist them in helping the organization grow. Further, they will be in a better position to troubleshoot problems or areas of concern. Reflecting on events can help team members analyze what went well and what went wrong. All it takes is three quick questions on your part to stimulate reflection. We suggest using our “LCS” method. This is an acronym for the items in Box 4.

In our hectic lives, many team members fly through the day without taking time to reflect, causing them to make the same mistakes and engage in the same behaviors over and over. We have all seen it, but reflection can jump-start an increased level of self-awareness. All of us have worked with people who have low levels of awareness—they have no idea that many dislike being around them. They don’t even realize when they are bringing the team down. Reflection is a competency that all of us can work on continually.

What we often suggest to clients is that they take just five minutes out of a staff meeting for individuals to share their learning with others on the team. And it’s not just about those projects that succeeded. This strategy can (and should) be used for those projects that did not pan out as expected. The individual will likely learn from this reflection, and so will others on the team. It is also an empowering strategy whereby “failures” are rewarded, metaphorically speaking. If you want people to reflect and share learning, it is not enough to share successes.

Leaders may also stimulate reflection on failed assignments, or at least those that were not as successful as anticipated (see Tip #50: Capture the Learning from Hardships and Failure). Interestingly, this sharing of failure has been documented in many studies, articles, and books.