Definition: What is reflective practice?
Reflective practice is principally a process of self-analysis where individuals and groups reflect on their thoughts, feelings, and actions to understand, evaluate, and interpret events and experiences in which they are involved. This process is an intentional, deliberate, and in-depth consideration of the events, situations, thoughts, words, and actions chosen because they can be used to modify future practice to achieve even better outcomes. This intentional reflection on experience is essential for effective learning, continuous improvement, and future planning.

It is important to remember that reflective practice is an active and dynamic process, a series of stages that continually recycle.

Building on Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1998), Julie Hay (2007), suggested the following six stages of the reflection process:

1. Capturing events as they occur.
2. Reviewing specific events.
3. Reviewing a series of events to look for patterns.
4. Planning to incorporate learning points generally.
5. Planning for specific events.
6. Implementing resulting learning.

In the workplace, leaders and their teams can consider the following practices:

• reflecting ‘on’ action (past experiences and situations);
• reflecting ‘in’ action (on an event or a situation as it happens); and
• reflecting ‘for’ action (on future events or situations and on actions that they may wish to take in the future).

“Reflection allows the brain to pause amidst the chaos, untangle, and sort through observations and experiences.”

Why now?
In today’s VUCA1 world, where our attention span is reportedly shrinking, reflection should be seen as a key competency of effective leadership.

“Reflection allows the brain to pause amidst the chaos, untangle, and sort through observations and experiences.”

Dr. R. Cooper, neuroscientist, and leadership advisor

What are the benefits of reflective practice for leaders and their teams?

Four essential skills underpin successful reflective practice in the workplace:
• self-awareness the ability to focus on ourselves, our strengths and limitations, and how our thoughts, emotions judgments, and actions do or do not align with our internal and external standards (for example, our values, organizational culture, societal norms, or law).
• careful observation paying attention to, and noticing, key aspects (including the meaning) of our experience and the situation as a whole. Then think more deeply about what we observed (for example, by asking ourselves: What worked and what did not? Why did I and others behave the way we did?).• critical thinking judgments based on reasoning, considering options, and evaluating them using specific criteria, questioning assumptions, both our own and that of others, and drawing wellfounded conclusions.

Reflective practice was embedded into individual performance reviews and team meetings. As a result, team communication, morale, collaboration, and performance are steadily improving.

• flexible response being able to adapt our style, approach, and behavior in response to complex, uncertain, or unpredictable circumstances or changes as they come.

Our coaching clients who use reflective practice told us about the following benefits for their teams and the whole organization:
• Client A from a public sector organization was asked to turn around an underperforming team with a track record of long-lasting interpersonal conflicts. She used reflective practice conversations with the relevant individuals to create a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of specific behaviors and attitudes on work performance. This was followed by whole team discussions which widened the perspective on problems experienced by the team and helped to develop strategies to deal with conflicts and to improve collaboration within the team itself and with other teams and departments. Reflective practice was embedded into individual performance reviews and team meetings. As a result, team communication, morale, collaboration, and performance are steadily improving.

• Several strategic decisions resulted in a review and re-design of the portfolio of products and services in a technology company of Client L. This presented a challenge of facilitating fast learning and strengthening the capabilities of the teams affected by changes while continuing to provide high-quality customer care. Reflective practice was used in these teams as a tool to help them identify their strengths and limitations about this challenge and to find the most efficient ways of learning and upskilling both on individual and team levels. One such way was designating separate team members to focus on gaining different knowledge and skills and then sharing their learning with the rest of the team. According to Client L, this helped to embed the required knowledge and skills fast and deeply, while also developing the communication and collaboration skills of all team members.

• Reflective practice provides opportunities for professional growth and development. As Client N put it, “The coaching space allowed time for deep reflection and time to put together a set of articulated ideas, which I have applied to my personal development agenda with much success. I am now operating with greater confidence and stronger collaboration, leading to more doors of opportunity that traditionally have not been available to me before this experience.”

• Having experienced reflective practice during his coaching sessions, Client R is now using it to stimulate his leadership development. He also introduced it to other members of the senior leadership team of his organization which is operating in the education sector. Since the beginning of the current academic year, Client R and his colleagues implemented a number of improvements to their workplace and leadership practice which were identified through reflective practice.

By using reflective practice, leaders and their teams can further enhance their skills as well as develop their higher mental functions such as problem-solving and decision-making which will help them reach their goals more efficiently.

Team reflective practice also helps to capitalize on the benefits of collective intelligence the body of knowledge that grows out of a group of people working together which cannot exist on an individual level. Client P, who is leading an innovation and disruption department of a global engineering company, is using reflective practice as part of regular “insight and inspiration” discussions with his own teams and cross-functional project teams. Many innovative solutions and breakthroughs were born during these discussions.

Team reflective practice also helps to capitalize on the benefits of collective intelligence – the body of knowledge that grows out of a group of people working together which cannot exist on an individual level.

There is a growing body of evidence highlighting the use and benefits of reflection in a variety of settings. These include health and social care, education, customer care, and leadership development.

For example, Giada Di Stephano and colleagues2 analyzed evidence gathered in ten experimental studies with a total sample size of 4,340 people, conducted across different environments, geographies, and populations. They concluded that reflecting on accumulated experience generates higher performance outcomes than accumulating additional experience alone and pointed out that reflecting on what has been learned can increase performance by as much as 23%. The results of this study also suggest that how people engage in reflection may play a major role in its effectiveness as a learning tool. It was established that articulating their reflections by participants of the study helped them to deepen information processing and achieve a stronger positive impact on their performance.

What are the barriers to reflective practice in the workplace?
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that reflective practice is an effective learning tool helping to achieve performance improvement in individuals and teams. However, according to the authors of the article “Why Leaders Don’t Learn from Success” (Gino, F. and Pisano, P.) HBR, (2011), organizations that use it are the exception rather than the norm.

Why?
The six most common reasons for not using reflective practice which we hear from our clients include the following:
• (Perceived) lack of time “Most of the time I am way too busy to find even a few minutes to catch my breath, never mind reflections”.
• Lack of skill and know-how “I have heard about the benefits of reflective practice and even read about a few models, but could not decide which one to use. And the process itself sounded too complicated for my liking.”
• Organizational culture “We are not allowed to indulge in “navel-gazing” in my company.”
• Motivation “I “gave a go” to reflections after one of the training courses I attended, but it felt a bit weird and I could not see any positive changes. I gave up after two weeks.”
• Ourselves “I am not a reflection man, I am an action man!”

The same six barriers to reflection were also highlighted in the Reflective Practice Toolkit published by the Cambridge University Libraries.

We have to acknowledge that, while our appreciation of reflective practice as a means for meeting the challenges of today’s digital world is growing, our ability to reflect is not necessarily an inherent attribute of every individual whether or not he or she is in a position of leadership. Cynthia Roberts, (Purdue University), points out, that this ability “must be cultivated over time, and unless one is actively engaged in the practice of reflection, it is doubtful that this capability will develop on its own.”

So, we added a seventh barrier to the list: often reflective practice is not used consistently and long enough to realize its full benefits and to become a habit – a regularly repeated behavior that requires little or no thought and is learned rather than innate. This may explain why some people say that they have tried reflective practice but it did not work for them, so they did not bother anymore.

What are the models of reflective practice?

Most models of reflective practice are based on the famous psychological and educational theory known as Kolb’s Learning Cycle which offers a simple explanation of the concept of reflective learning.

As illustrated by Figure 1, a learning event starts with “An experience”, followed by “Reviewing/Reflecting on the experience”, followed by “Concluding/Learning from the experience”, then “Implementing/Trying out what you have learned”. This is an ongoing cycle which can be repeated many times.

Morris is illustrated by Figure 2

In his systematic review and revision of Kolb’s model, Dr. Thomas Morris (Bath Spa University) argued that, while Kolb’s model remains the principal and most influential model in experiential learning theory, it has a number of shortcomings including a lack of empirical evidence which Morris looked to address in a subsequent study.

Based on the results of this review, a revision to Kolb’s 1984 model by Morris is illustrated in Figure 2.

Whilst this revised model is based on studies of experiential learning, they are in contexts that rerepresentut-of-classroom experiences, and therefore, more empirical studies are needed to test its assumptions, particularly in the workplace.

Gibbs’s Reflective Cycle, Learning by Doing (1998) is more comprehensive than Kolb’s model and provides prompting questions throughout the process.

This model illustrated by Figure 3 is a good way to work through both a stand-alone experience and situations people go through regularly, for example, meetings with a team they have to collaborate with.

This format guides a methodical and thorough evaluation of an experience, making it simpler to pinpoint key elements. It promotes self-awareness and holistic learning and drives people to develop action plans and future strategies. It is also flexible enough to be used in various contexts – for example, in business, healthcare, social care, and education.

However, while this model is systematic and relatively simple to follow, it may take a lot of time to go through all six steps, so most people who are time-short may avoid regular reflective practice as they simply don’t have the time to make it a habit.

The Boud Reflection Model illustrated in Figure 4 (overleaf) was developed by David Boud, Rosemary Keogh, and David Walker in 1985. It is one of the simplest (and quickest to use) models of reflection. It focuses on learning by reflecting on one’s practice to better understand their activities and background to improve what one does with their work responsibilities.

However, this model does not elaborate on what reflection might consist of, or how the learning might translate back into experience of workplace practice.

This model of reflective practice can help develop different kinds of perspectives that take account of human emotions helping people separate the useful feelings that are part of their work actions and decision-making so that they are able to control emotions and use them to their advantage in the performance of professional activities.

The “What” Model of reflective practice illustrated in Figure 5 was created by Professors Rolfe, Freshwater, and Jasper (2001), and was originally conceptualized around nursing practice. However, it proved to be useful in other contexts too, for example in education, social care, and business. It describes an iterative process consisting of three simple questions that require comprehensive reflective answers.

Some of the potential difficulties in using this model are that it requires a lot of self-awareness, situation awareness, “reflection on reflection” as well as time to ask all “the right questions” or questions that help reflection. To some extent, this limitation can be mitigated by using The “What” Model in dialogue with another person (a colleague, a manager, or another professional, for example, a coach or a mentor) where both can challenge each other to reflect deeper, triggering a dialectic approach.

It was due to the different challenges we encountered with each of the models described above, that we developed, with Lindsey Popplewell, our EASY Model of reflective practice in 2023. Like other models of reflective practice, the EASY Model is rooted in Kolb’s Learning Cycle. This model is different by design from other models because it is also informed by insights from applied neuroscience, behavioral science, and positive psychology. It is also quick and easy to follow.

As illustrated by Figure 6, this model utilizes a combination of an acronym and kinaesthetic physical mnemonic (memory device) which uses fingers to remember the acronym EASY where each letter stands for one of the four steps:
• E – Establish your intention what do you want to achieve / what area of your leadership you wish to focus on?
• A – Acknowledge what went well and continue doing that.
• S – Step up your game reflect on what you have learned and consider what you can do differently, perhaps even better, to enhance your leadership impact.
• Y – Your commitment to act decides what you will do and do it!

The EASY Model of reflective practice is effective because:
• Establishing intention focuses our limited executive attention on what matters to us and helps in action planning and protecting the pursuit of our current goal from distractions and temptations. Setting intention also provides accountability and allows us to make proactive choices.• Acknowledging what went well helps to confront and overcome our negativity bias.

“Our brain is like Velcro for negative experiences, but Teflon for positive ones”

Rick Hanson, neuropsychologist and author

We can overcome this bias by reminding ourselves about our achievements and successes. Acknowledging what went well serves to quieten our inner critic, calm our limbic system, and bring our parasympathetic nervous system online. It will also help to boost our self-compassion, self-esteem, and confidence in preparation for the next step.

• Stepping up our game brings our prefrontal cortex online which intelligently regulates our thoughts, actions, and emotions through extensive connections with other brain regions, and helps us decide what we can do differently to achieve even better results. It helps us to prepare for future actions. During this step we are “slowing down to speed up” We are using our “system 2 thinking” (slow, deliberate, and conscious) to create our action plan and to move it into our “system 1 thinking” (habit-forming, fast, automatic and effortless) (Kahneman, 2012).

• Your commitment to act is not just about deciding what to do and when. Any commitment is only true when we act upon it. This step builds on the positive state and momentum of the previous steps thus helping us to move from decision to action.

The process could be repeated with a new intention to explore another aspect of the same situation or behavior or to reflect on a new one.

It is recommended to massage each finger while going through the corresponding step of the EASY model. According to research3, finger massage is conducive to improving intelligence and sharpening the mind. Regular finger exercise can improve brain circulation and form new exciting points and connections in the brain, which is beneficial to the improvement of understanding, memory, and thinking.

To conclude:

There are many more models of reflective practice. Michelle Lucas in her new book “Creating the Reflective Habit: A Practical Guide for Coaches, Mentors, and Leaders” presents some of them and offers a practical toolkit that shows how to create a sustainable reflective habit in individuals and organizations.

Essentially, it does not matter which model leaders and their teams use as long as it works for them and they build reflective practice into their daily/weekly routine and use it consistently for continuous improvement of themselves and their team.

Reflective practice does not have to take a lot of time. According to a 2021 study on habit formation routinely published by Jan Keller and colleagues, “piggy-backing” on existing routines helps to form a new habit more quickly and easily. This is useful to know when considering the best ways to create a reflective practice habit. Try reflecting whilst brushing your teeth!

Alternatively, it is possible to integrate reflections into everyone’s daily work, (for example, when moving from one activity to the next, pausing for a brief moment to reflect on what was accomplished and the impact it had), or to include reflection in team meetings and project reviews. The key skill is to make it part of your routine. Create and maintain the habit!

Working with a coach or a mentor is another way to help leaders and their teams build lasting reflection skills that could be used effectively in the workplace and beyond.