Three kinds of reflection.

A few weeks ago I was invited to run a workshop on reflective practice at a conference. I assumed the arrangements would be much as usualda 90 min slot with maybe 10 or 12 people attending. I was mistaken. When I arrived I discovered the organisers had planned two slots for me, each lasting only three-quarters of an hour. Twenty-five people had already signed up for each of the slots. The thought of teaching reflective practice to such large numbers in such a short space of time seemed absurd, a contradiction in terms. It challenged my autonomic nervous so much that I had to go to the toilet. While there, I managed to collect my thoughts. I remembered how often health professionals complain that it’s impossible to practise reflectively because time is so short and the circumstances too pressurised, and I wondered if I could use this opportunity to demonstrate the opposite: that reflective practice is always possible if you decide it’s your main priority. I worked out a way to show exactly that. I went to the seminar room where the workshops were taking place and arranged the chairs in a circle around the wall. I pushed the projector table and flip chart into a corner, and made sure I had no notes or papers in my hands or by my chair. Once everyone had come in and settled, I allowed a minute or two for people to sit in silence, expectantly. I introduced myself and pointed out that we had already created between us the ideal circumstances for reflective practice: a group of highly experienced professionals in a quiet room with no distractions and no interruptions. I told them that I didn’t intend to teach them anything, but simply to allow them 45 min of protected time for reflection with some clear structures and rules to make sure this happened. Immediately, someone objecteddin the nicest possible way. Since I was meant to be an expert on the subject, she asked, couldn’t I just explain to them how to make reflective practice happen in the impossible conditions of today ’s health service. I replied that this was exactly what I hoped to do, but through modelling it rather than telling people what to do. I told them that I was going to introduce a simple exercise that can be used almost anywhere, and that was going demonstrate three different kinds of reflection. The first kind of reflection is inner dialogue: talking to oneself about a problem and what to do about it. The second kind consists of talking about this to another person. And the third kind involves having a further person (or persons) to witness the conversation and then offer their own thoughts about it.