Why reflection is the new CrossFit (without the scandals)

This week I have been creating the opportunity for leaders to make some space for reflection. Normally in the workshops that I run as a facilitator, we help leaders dial-up their understanding of a particular topic related to leadership. We then asked them to define an experimental action they'll take, and to visualise how they might achieve it. 

I also like to have participants "pressure test" those actions to pre-find failure points or possible obstacles that might get in the way of them achieving their action and preplanning their responses. Nothing too innovative in that. However, the differentiator between a decent leader and a high-performance leader is a surprisingly small thing: its reflection. So as a sounding board and facilitator, part of the reason my clients get such great results is that I give them the opportunity to reflect once they have taken those actions.

Why is reflection so powerful?

Often during busy days we are too preoccupied with delivery to take stock of whether the delivery is having the desired effect, if it is counter-productive, or if it's simply burning time. Action and reflection are not the same things. Reflection gives us the opportunity to consider whether what we're doing is the right course of action and also whether there might be a better way of approaching that action to have a greater impact. When I was serving in the military we used to have an after-action review or post-mortem following just about everything where we examined:

1. what happened, 
2. what went well, 
3. what hadn't gone so well and did we know why, 
4. what we might change if we were to encounter this (or a similar) situation again. 

These four questions form the basis of a simple reflection exercise any person can do in about 3 to 5 minutes. In the military, the speed of development and growth of capability was just about exponential and became a behavioral pattern as it was facilitated by the whole command structure. 

Having a sounding board or coach to walk through these questions with you and or your team often leads to more being revealed, and a greater level of honesty; which leads to the breakthroughs people want. Sometimes, it's just a bit too easy to skip over the reflection bit altogether or to deflect some of the "bits that didn't go so well". That's where I add value. I take away the blame or self-flagellation elements and focus on the learning. Much like I spoke about last week in my blog about learning quickly.

I had the luxury of attending a leadership development program myself this week as a participant too. This is the first time in two weeks I had had a concerted opportunity to consider what it was that I was trying to achieve and how I was getting in my own way. One of the lightbulb moments for me was how do I create more opportunity for self-reflection as when I do, it seems to be highly beneficial. When I do reflect I tend to have large breakthroughs - the proof in the pudding being blogs which come more easily and content which is pitched at a more human level - which is more authentically me. The question remains whether if I had more frequent reflections would I have the same significant breakthroughs? And I guess that remains to be seen.

Did you know that the Harvard Business School did a research project in Bangladesh where they asked workers to reflect on an action they had taken? It turns out that over a period of time, with a 10 to 15 minute reflection period, productivity was increased by 23% for those people. If they share that reflection with another person productivity left at 25%. 

So was the science is inarguable however the question still remains how are you going to plan some reflection time during these crazy busy moments in life? Here are some ideas but I would love to hear yours.

Habit pairing - Do you commute? Walk the Dog? Go for a run? Set aside that time to reflect on one specific action from the day and ask yourself the 4 questions listed above.

Have a place to capture when it happens - A notebook/recording device by your bed or in the bathroom means when those moments come and you have a breakthrough you can capture it before life becomes busy again. By just writing it down, we cement in the reflection 10-12% more and it becomes more likely to help your improved performance.

Block out time to tackle your biggest challenge right now - if you have been wrangling with something for a while, program in one hour to reflect on it and what might be holding you back.  If we tackle the biggest challenge, often we can unlock a number of others at the same time.

Know that reflecting is like CrossFit - at the start, you might not be able to lift the heavy stuff or workout for too long and it might leave you feeling tired or a little mentally sore - especially if you are having to admit some stuff to yourself you don't really like. But if you keep training, your brain gets stronger and better at doing it; and you can step into that space and excel whenever you need to.

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