Reflection Idea Bank
Need some reflection inspiration?
Welcome to Insitu’s resource page for reflection.
In our ebook The Power of Reflection, we guide you through scientific evidence on the value of reflection and how to harness reflection for business impact and personal growth.
Here we’ve gathered resources for further inspiration, and tips and ideas for using reflection in the workplace.
And if you’d rather get some inspiration by talking with one of us, then…
Get in touch now! We’d love to talk!
Why reflect?
Consciously looking back on past experiences, thoughts and ways of doing things can bring meaning to the present and the future. This is reflection.
Reflection can challenge attitudes and beliefs, enhance understanding, and inform decisions and actions, allowing you and your workforce to:
- identify patterns and opportunities for learning
- gain more learning from individual experiences
- monitor progress
- set the right goals and objectives
- develop self-awareness
And experience, followed by reflection, is a powerful catalyst to learning and growth.
So, with reflection, any organisation seeking success and growth can be adaptable and be able to learn, unlearn and relearn.
Our learning experience designers at Insitu can help you build reflection into activities.
Ideas for using reflection in your business
Here are some prompts to help you think about using reflection in your business. Depending on your organisation and learning context, some ideas could be a great fit, while others might not work at all, and that’s ok!
> Involve business leaders and relevant role models
Can you leverage your leadership or other inspiring figures to encourage your workforce to reflect more often?
Sharing their quotes or reflection practice ideas could be a great idea. Maybe you could ask them to add reflection timeblocks to shared calendars to lead by example?
> Strengthen peer communities
Encourage leaders to make space structured team reflection time.
Ask new hires to jump on a quick call with their peers to think through what they’ve learned and what they might have questions about.
Or encourage people to do individual reflection at the same time and and in the same space, be it physical or virtual.
> Encourage people to reflect in different ways
Everyone has a favourite way to articulate their thoughts. Some like to go on reflection walks. Others like to record voice notes, or write things down, or make mind maps.
Reflection can be a highly personal process and by recognising and embracing that we can express ourselves in many different ways, you will be able to get many more people on board.
> Consider the physical and digital environment
Can you create a physical space for reflection in your office, if you have one?
This could be a quiet, pleasant corner, or a communal space with resources for group reflection activities (lots of sticky notes and a whiteboard are a start!)
> Include reflection prompts and activities in your resources
Add reflection prompts or activities to your manuals, documentation, one-pagers, etc, to encourage reflection in the flow of work.
More inspiration for reflection
You can find many great resources and toolkits online to inspire you and help you use reflection activities more often in your own work.
Two that we like very much here at Insitu are the Reflection Toolkit from the University of Edinburgh, and the Reflective Practice Toolkit from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. Both resources are well researched, comprehensive, and up to date. They both have walk-through examples of different reflective practices in action.
The Cambridge University Libraries Reflective Practice Toolkit has a visual summary of some models of reflection that can be a helpful starting point. But don’t feel you have to be locked into one way of doing things. Reflection is a very personal process and everyone will work towards it in different ways.
