Reflexivity: Learning to Reflect in-action

The time to reflect is now, in-action; not in some despairingly imagined future respite. And, the form of reflection we need in-action is more than just personal introspection, it is a mode of social inquiry.

Reflexivity: Learning to Reflect in-action

The idea of reflecting on our experience is often associated with having the luxury of time to spend in quiet contemplation, looking back and ruminating on what was and what might have been; recollecting the forks in our road and identifying the choices that have shaped our current state of being. It may involve a summing up of achievements and disappointments; a revelation of patterns in our behaviour and emotional dispositions, of ‘confidences exchanged and trusts maintained’ (to use the words of the poet Seamus Heaney). In mythology, reflection is often associated with relaxing beside a body of water: the sea, a river or stream which conveys the ebb and flow of life along with the metaphoric attraction of a mirroring surface covering hidden depths and currents.

Ah, yes a sea change is what I need!

Unfortunately modern life tends to make a myth of such notions of reflection. We find ourselves yearning for the space to collect our thoughts and recalibrate what is central and peripheral in our lives because in reality we are stressed out by the deadlines, options, choices, demands and
commitments of a recursive, 24/7 world of work.

Paradoxically, the time to reflect is now, in-action; not in some despairingly imagined future respite. And, the form of reflection we need in-action is more than just personal introspection, it is a mode of social inquiry. A pause from action (a form of inaction) to consider together our experiences in-action.

The more pressure we are under to think fast the more we need to be able to create the space to be able to think about how we are thinking (or not thinking, just reacting). But we won’t create this space until we learn to value it. And in organisational life we won’t learn to value it unless we can
learn to reflect with our colleagues about our collective experience. Such social reflection is called reflexivity. It is about noticing and thinking together about the nature of our involvement in our participation with each other as we strive to collaborate in pursuit of common aims. It is about noticing our avoidance of and resistance to sharing our feelings about our experience of participating and having the courage to present that as data to colleagues.

Reflexivity is the process of making sense together of the connections between past and future, of personal trade-offs and political compromises, persuasions accomplished and views relinquished, values held and practical judgements made in the pursuit of the common good. It reflects the personal as an aspect of the collective. Encouraging reflexivity is a key component of contemporary leadership and developing that leadership capacity is a key component of NIODA’s Master of Leadership and Management in Organisation Dynamics. We all live with the unconscious tension of wanting both to be a part of, and apart from, the groups we need to work with. Learning how to quietly inquire about and manage that tension in-action is a critical skill for leaders today. It takes courage but it is not necessarily heroic. As Henry Mintzberg put it: “Quiet management is about thoughtfulness rooted in experience.”

Prof John Newton
Founding director of Master (Org. Behav.) Swinburne 1987
& current Chair, Academic Board of Governance, NIODA

7 October 2019

Reflexivity: Learning to Reflect in-action

ps Are you a leader or manager and would like to learn more about reflexivity and learning to reflect in-action? Have a look at the NIODA Master of Leadership and Management (Organisation Dynamics) course.