Thing 5 Reflection

Thing 5 looks at reflective practice, so cue lots of lovely images of reflections.

Lake Louise, Canada

This is the part that I am having most difficulty with. It all sounds a little touchy feely, with lots of navel-gazing (yuk!) and self-expression through toe-painting thrown in. I’ve started the blog, so that means I’m talking to myself or trying to talk to strangers – I’m sure if I was doing this off-line I’d be having nice cups of tea with a different sort of professional.

So I’m looking to pin reflection on something more concrete. Back in the day, when I worked in computing we followed a quality management process. It went along the lines of:

Plan it; review it, Do it; review it

So this equated to:

• Write a specification; review it (with others), implement it; post-implementation review (with others). Reviewing the plan, preferably with others, gave you an opportunity to identify whether you’d missed anything.

This feels much more concrete and related to work processes; and seems to be (a little) in line with the processes discussed (I’m feeling happier). I’m not sure that I agree with the suggestion that reflection is something you do away from work, in a nice quiet spot. I’m more inclined to think it should be part of your daily work / training linked to how you are delivering your service rather than something away from this.