The difference between reflection and learning - does it even matter?
Progress over perfection. It’s a mantra that propels us forward in tough times. But what if there was a way to supercharge our progress?
Imagine using collective reflection and learning to unlock new levels of progress over perfection.
Before we get into the tips, let’s start by aligning on some definitions…
Reflection is about looking back to understand past experiences like we do in a retro.
Learning is about finding ways to improve future outcomes. (I want to acknowledge that there are many other important definitions of learning, but I’m narrowing in on this one for this specific conversation.)
Reflection is often a key driver of learning. We gather insights from the past and declare some intentions for how we will do things differently next time.
Here’s the thing… when ‘next time’ comes, we may have forgotten the reflections from the last project. Or maybe there are different people involved who aren’t even aware of the insights from last time. When that happens, we’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
That’s why recognising the distinction between reflection and learning really matters - because if we don’t pay attention to both, we risk wasting time, effort and money - and that reduces our impact.
So, how do we ensure we build the right disciplines around reflection and learning?
Let’s start with reflection…reflection involves thinking critically about what happened, how it happened, and why - focusing on planning, execution and behaviour. It requires rigour and discipline to ensure it happens at the right points in time and with the appropriate level of self-critique.
When sharing lessons learned, seeing the reflections from another team’s retro is helpful, sort of…
The key is to turn those specific reflections into learnings that have applications beyond your project or your function.
To turn reflection into learning, there are 2 key questions:
What must we remember next time and every time?
What advice would we give to colleagues in another team based on what we’ve learned?
Here’s a very simple example:
Reflection from a retro: we didn’t engage legal early enough in the project timeline, and it caused avoidable delays later on
Applicable learning: When project planning, it’s valuable to seek early guidance from legal about the ideal timing for their involvement.
Once you’ve articulated the learning, the next step is to think about how to make it accessible to everyone.
How will they know it exists?
Where should they go to look for it?
What are the keywords that would link their question and your learning?
We’ve got so much untapped, unrecognised knowledge sitting in our teams.
So here’s my prompt…what can you do to unlock it?