Critical reflective practice

28/3/2019

It’s hard to think outside our own thinking to do the as-yet unthinkable, yet that’s often where real transformation takes place. How do you do it? How do you enable others to do it?

What does a kilogram weigh on the moon? Is grass still green when it’s dark?

I had this fascinating conversation with a chemistry student last night about what can be known to be true and how. We touched on philosophy, theology and science and I left feeling like my brain had been bent and twisted in different directions. One of the key principles that came through is that we base our understanding of the world on what we believe or know to be true already. It’s a form of projection that creates a psychological sense of certainty and enables us to predict, test and move on. It’s also a phenomenon that can leave us profoundly mistaken – without realising it.

I listened to a radio interview with the controversial film director Quentin Tarantino. When asked to comment on the quirky, sudden and often dramatic mood swings in his films, Tarantino responded, ‘Who do you imagine I am directing in my movies – the actors or the audience?’ He went on to paint an image of himself standing invisibly behind the cinema screen like the conductor of an orchestra. The audience watches the film. He conducts the audience. The audience is the orchestra. It was a stunning example of challenging the assumed, reframing an experience, revealing the unexpected.

The moral of this story? Not everything is as it appears to be or what we may want or expect it to be. We are easily unaware or deceived. It’s why ‘critical reflective practice’ is so valuable and important as professionals, leaders, managers, teams and organisations. It’s about taking conscious, proactive steps to challenge, test and transform our awareness, assumptions, thinking, stance and practice – enabling greater inspiration, resourcefulness, resilience and effectiveness. (See: Thompson & Thompson, The Critically Reflective Practitioner, 2008; Bassot, The Reflective Practice Guide, 2016).

As leader, OD, coach or trainer, what have been your experiences of critical reflective practice? Where have you seen or experienced real transformation, radical re-framings or paradigm shifts?

Can I help you develop critical reflective practice? Get in touch! [email protected]

50 Comments

John Gibson

4/4/2019 01:43:33 pm

Hi Nick. I'm looking for a worked example of critical reflexivity - can you help? Very best wishes and blessings.

Nick Wright

4/4/2019 01:44:06 pm

Hi John. Interesting question. As you may be aware, critical reflexivity is one dimension of critical reflective practice. This short piece may be worth a glance. It was based on an idea I developed to use with a leadership team that was developing a new strategy:

http://www.nick-wright.com/blog/spots

Is that what you had in mind?

(The ‘critical’ part infers comparing and contrasting the client’s experience with others’ experience and relevant theory/research.)

4/4/2019 01:45:14 pm

Hi Nick. Thanks for getting back to me. Just to add a little more detail. Recently, I appeared before the Viva committee at my university. They approved my PhD dissertation. However, they asked me to do some more work, hence the source of my query to you re critical reflexivity. I’m comfortable with getting theory onto paper – and I believe I have a reasonable degree of self-awareness but I’m struggling to get at my core assumptions. Like you I come from a Christian faith perspective and I included that in my dissertation. So that is the back ground to my request.

Do you provide on-line (Skype) consultations? A conversation would be good.

4/4/2019 01:46:22 pm

Hi John. Thanks for the background. Yes, I do provide consultations by Skype. This short piece may be worth a glance at in case it sparks any ideas for your thesis:

http://www.nick-wright.com/blog/critical-reflexivity

4/4/2019 01:47:09 pm

Thanks Nick. You have answered a puzzle for me. I kept tripping up on the difference between ‘reflexivity’ and ‘critical reflexivity’. So the latter is still about self, one’s work / ideas / beliefs etc in the frame, but subjecting those to ‘critical’ examination against other perspectives?

I will email you to set up a Skype conversation.

4/4/2019 01:47:34 pm

Thanks John. Yes, that's how I see the distinction...although different writers and practitioners hold different views on this point!

4/4/2019 01:50:30 pm

Thanks for that. I look forward to some guidance on how to write critical reflexivity into my thesis.

4/4/2019 01:51:00 pm

Hi John. A couple of thinking prompts in advance of our conversation:

*Potential blind spots: Who would fundamentally (and preferably ferociously) disagree with your beliefs, values, analysis and recommendations in the thesis - and why? What could they be seeing that you're not seeing?

*Potential hot spots: Who or what have you ignored or avoided because it clashes with your (and, perhaps, your organisation's/ culture's/ sectors's) beliefs and values about, say, what the key issues are, why things are as they are and what should be done to address them?

I look forward to seeing you on Skype.

Kathrin

4/4/2019 01:51:55 pm

I am a teacher. With students, I often discuss their opinions on a topic. It is interesting how many different points of view they have. But there is often no right or wrong. I can make them think, make them more critical, but not dictate to them.

4/4/2019 01:52:22 pm

Hi Kathrin. Creating space for different points of view to emerge in a group can be a great way of stimulating critical reflective practice. Often, we don't know what we are assuming - personally and culturally - until confronted with a different belief, feeling or stance to our own. It could be interesting, for instance, to explore 'no right or wrong' or 'not dictate to them' as beliefs and implications for professional practice?

4/4/2019 01:52:59 pm

In a discussion of believing and not believing students about death, I cannot say what you think is right and the other is wrong. Nobody knows what happens. But critical inquiries, which leads to further reflection, perhaps also doubts, I allow the students and me already.

4/4/2019 01:53:20 pm

Wow, Kathrin. What a great topic of inquiry. It touches on so many spiritual and metaphysical questions concerning reality and truth. It could also touch on personal and cultural questions concerning, for example, life, death, faith, belief, meaning, purpose, security, uncertainty etc.

4/4/2019 01:53:48 pm

It's really interesting what 15-year-old girls and boys hope, believe and not believe.

4/4/2019 01:54:20 pm

Hi Kathrin. Yes, I’m sure. In critical reflective practice we could consider, for instance, how the way in which we engage with 15-year olds (and they with each other) influences their beliefs, values and stance in the world (and vice versa), how far their beliefs, values and stance (and our own) are culturally and contextually influenced or determined etc.

Crispin Garden-Webster

4/4/2019 01:55:30 pm

Stay curious, ask questions, place the status quo in a place that doesn’t block your view. Make it safe for people to put their hand up.

4/4/2019 01:56:14 pm

Hi Crispin. 'Place the status quo in a place that doesn't block your view.' What a great image!! :)

Ewan Menzies

4/4/2019 02:34:37 pm

Good post Nick, so many want to achieve this radical change but just don't know how. For us it is all about using prospective hindsight. The brain is a remarkable thing (100 trillion connections) and unlike any IT system or AI it is able to hypothesis. We do this with clients by creating pictures of their future (not numbers - "we will hit £5M turn over!") then get the team to picture that future and ask them how did you get there? What happened before that? So often the big transformations come with little time, effort or cost!

4/4/2019 02:41:38 pm

Thanks Ewan. I love your expression, 'prospective hindsight'. :) One of the challenges is often how to enable leaders and teams to envisage a radically different future to the one that they have already created, lived out and and invested in that has brought them to this point. In other words, how to introduce genuinely disruptive patterns and shifts that enable imagination and creation of something new. Do you have any case examples from experience that you could share here?

4/4/2019 04:34:23 pm

Nick Wright we enable everyone in the organisation with a single page graphical plan, A0, up on the wall for all to see and work from. This is built using prospective hindsight. We then delegate the tipping points on the plan. Some of these may be months or years away, but we ask, "How could you achieve that by 5pm Friday!"

4/4/2019 04:56:07 pm

Hi Ewan. I have used something similar with an organisation where we imagined ourselves inhabiting our desired future (5 years from now) and speaking from various stakeholder perspectives, as if at that point in time (how it looks, feels, what we are doing, what difference we are making) and then, how we got there from where we are now. It was a visioning exercise using 'imagine if...'

I also used a similar technique with an established leadership team that was stuck in patterns of behaviour that were proving self-limiting and, at times, creating unhealthy tension and conflict:

To break the pattern, I invited the team to imagine that, 3 hours from now, its meeting had been sensationally fantastic...then to speak from that place in terms of what each person's contribution had been to what had happened; e.g. 'I was more honest than usual, speaking up rather than staying silent'; 'I was curious rather than defensive if someone disagreed with me.'

We followed on with holding the meeting itself, inviting and challenging team members to do what they had said, and holding each other to account in doing it. We also shifted to a different place in the room, moved people into different seats and changed the layout to disrupt normal patterns. The difference was electrifying!

Julie Bullen

4/4/2019 02:42:35 pm

How beautiful and clever - the whole world in an eye.

4/4/2019 02:44:04 pm

Thanks Julie. Yes - I found the photo on Google and thought it was very evocative and striking as an image for this topic.

Gennifer Robbins

4/4/2019 07:15:30 pm

Perspective taking is so important in building EI. I love the quote from Quentin Tarantino - that is a fantastic perspective I have never thought of. I am curious what others are doing in their reflective practices as well. Thank you for asking the question.

4/4/2019 07:21:06 pm

Thanks Gennifer. Yes, as Sarah Edelman comments in her book, Change your Thinking with CBT' (2018), emotions motivate behaviours; cognitions affect emotions; emotions affect cognitions; behaviours affect emotions and cognitions - it's all inter-linked.

John b. May

4/4/2019 11:05:41 pm

How can we think beyond our own thinking? Quite simply by not thinking. The whole basis of meditation and self-non-knowledge.🌈

4/4/2019 11:08:17 pm

Hi John. That's an interesting perspective! You reminded me of some of Adam Kahane's work. It suggests that the way to deal with complex, difficult problems is to face the challenge, then to spend time not thinking about it...and thereby allow a subconscious solution to emerge.

Ada Luz Gonzalez, Ph.D.

4/4/2019 11:24:03 pm

Reflection has to become a practice if any learning and change is going to occur. I think as executive coaches part of our role is to provide that safe time container where leaders can reflect and even reflect on their reflecting. . . Thanks for sharing!

4/4/2019 11:33:26 pm

Thanks Ada. Your comment, 'reflect on reflecting' reminded me of Chris Argyris' and Donald Schon's double and triple loop learning. Are you familiar with it? You may find this short related piece interesting? http://www.nick-wright.com/blog/deconstructing-the-box

5/4/2019 06:35:50 pm

Yes, I'm familiar with it. I took a class for my PhD on Transformative Learning and that where I got familiar with their work. Not many people talk about them this days. But I still find their concepts helpful and true.

5/4/2019 06:36:59 pm

Hi Ada. That sounds fascinating. Yes, I too rarely hear of Argyris and Schon's work these days and I too still find them valuable.

Omozua Ameze Isiramen

4/4/2019 11:35:15 pm

Nick, I appreciate the insights in this article. Thank you for sharing. Stepping out of the comfort zone is never easy and it takes practice, guidance and the resilience to course-correct. A lot of reflecting to do.

4/4/2019 11:35:56 pm

Hi Omozua. Thank you for your encouraging feedback!

Helen Green

5/4/2019 06:42:11 pm

As Robert Burns famously said in his poem To a Louse "Oh would some Power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us.” Being able to see ourselves through other eyes and being able to set aside our own preconceptions of others are traits which leaders would do well to develop if they are to help their people to deliver their potential.

5/4/2019 06:45:41 pm

Hi Helen. That's the first time somebody has burst into poetic verse in response to one of my posts! :) Yes, learning to see ourselves through other eyes and to suspend our preconceived ideas are valuable skills in critical reflexivity.

Glenda Fieldes

5/4/2019 10:33:27 pm

Good, yes....good.

5/4/2019 10:34:50 pm

Thanks Glenda. I’m intrigued. Can you say more..?

Fenny Ang

6/4/2019 10:25:53 am

@Nick thanks for the sharing. I find that while we ALL should know that reflexive praxis is key to effective coaching, many of us seldom pause.. going from one case to another, constantly needing to deliver “results” instantly. I find that when I formally schedule in reflection in my day, it really helps pull me back from just constant action without reflection.

6/4/2019 10:31:41 am

Thanks Fenny. I like the honesty in your response. My sense is that coaches are often quite good at reflection-in-action (that is, during coaching, use of self etc.) but, as you say, struggle to create time (or motivation) to engage in critical reflective practice outside of sessions. I find this is where skillful and insightful supervision can help. It can support motivation, provide a semi-structured space for critical reflection, ensure professional accountability and introduce an external perspective and challenge.

Derek Rowe

6/4/2019 10:33:34 am

For me it's about accepting change. Example. 10 years ago I was running 1 and 2 day workshops in anything to do with work and communication. These days my market demands the same value in 60-180 minutes, tops. The market's changed, and so must I. The result? My Learn Teach Explore model - designed to transform and enhance people's communication within this limited time frame. To create it I had to challenge the most accepted and adhered-to assumptions and practices around comms training, but...

...it works great. people improve in minutes. My point is, I'd never've thought to try unless I felt I had to.

6/4/2019 10:40:07 am

Hi Derek. That sounds like an example of reflective practice: noticing and being responsive to shifts in your environment. I like your comment, 'To create it, I had to challenge the most accepted and adhered-to assumptions and practices around comms training.' It's a good example of being willing and able to challenge conventional thinking and norms in your field to find a new solution that works. A harder challenge may be to shift your market or the market itself...

Swadesh Chakrabarty

7/4/2019 09:25:26 am

Dear Nick, writing after a long time. Last we hand exchanges on critical-reflexivity during December, 2012. See, how easily I forgot to think about thinking critically about things around me. Your article has reminded me of this reality that,"I do not always see what I see".
It seems to me that we live at the different levels of awareness at different times. By changing the awareness level we perceive the same thing differently although it remains the same. It's a magic at times. When I willingly change my awareness level and align it with my students, the same object, same question I experience differently. So many colors within the same color! It's like rainbow within the white light when looked at from different angles.
Want to write more. But I fear that how do you perceive my words now after a gap of long six years. Rest later. You are stimulating and I accuse you of provoking me to think beyond.

7/4/2019 09:33:35 am

Hi Swadesh. It is a pleasure to hear from you again. Thank you for sharing such profound and inspiring reflections. I love your expression, 'I do not always see what I see.'

It reminded me of Gestalt notions of 'figure' and 'ground' (i.e. what holds our attention in the moment, and what lays out of awareness as a backdrop) and Buddhist teachings on 'mindfulness' (e.g. 'When we walk, we know we are walking.') You may find a these 2 short related pieces interesting..?

http://www.nick-wright.com/blog/i-see-you
http://www.nick-wright.com/blog/seen-and-unseen

Please do write more!! :)

Jacqueline Joyce

7/4/2019 09:34:55 am

For me, this is about two things, firstly, getting the client to look at things from the perspective of others, how would your Steve Jobs suggest you approach that? Or how would your boss/partner deal with that situation? And secondly, asking them what they don't want to try as this is often where their blockage is. They know what they can do but it's challenging so shy away from it. Would be interested to hear others' opinions.

7/4/2019 09:45:04 am

Hi Joyce. Looking at things from the perspective of others (at least, from an imagined perspective) can be very powerful, especially if done as part of a wider systemic inquiry.

Joyce Scaife introduces a wide and creative range of techniques, 'Methods that encourage 'other' perspectives', in her excellent book, Supervising the Reflective Practitioner (2010, ch7).

On asking what they don't want to try, you reminded me of a challenging coaching question, 'What is the question you are hoping I won't ask you?' The client's response can be very revealing..!

7/4/2019 09:58:39 am

Absolutely! I found that question yesterday when I was doing some reading and made a note of it. I'm looking forward to using it and seeing how it goes. Will check out that book too!

7/4/2019 10:00:08 am

Thanks Jacqueline. Let us know how you get on! :)

5/5/2019 06:13:40 pm

Thanks for your article Nick. After having been an internal coach for 6 years I'm finally doing a formal qualification in coaching. I'm finding that the critical reflection that I have to report after each session teaches me as much, and sometimes more, as the experience and the reading.

Bringing my assumptions, judgements, beliefs and active thoughts into my conscious mind is incredibly powerful in my learning, development and self management. This is something that I will definitely continue after the qualification as it shines a light on outdated modalities, strengths and areas for development.

5/5/2019 06:16:23 pm

Thanks Jacqueline. It sounds like you are modelling good practice. It's something I encourage coaching clients to do too: take some time immediately after each coaching session to breathe, reflect and allow insight to emerge. So often, it's what emerges following the session that proves as transformational as what takes place within it.

6/5/2019 09:28:06 pm

Nick I love that thought! You're quite right, it's just as important for clients to reflect to consolidate learning, as well as generate new insights, as it is for a coach. This is also useful for motivation towards their goals as well as helping them to begin to learn to self coach.

6/5/2019 09:30:38 pm

Thanks Jacqueline. 😀