making better decisions - 13. Reflective Practice
Dealing with Difficult People
This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series.
13. Reflective Practice
Most of what we have covered so far relates to the steps to take before a decision is taken. Today we consider how to make the most of looking in the rear view mirror to learn from what we have chosen.
It's easy to perform some internet searches and find lists of hundreds of questions that you might want to ask in a situation like this, but a simple practice is more likely to be implemented than a complex one.
Allocate some regular time to your reflective practice, and look at both sides of a series of issues:
what went well / what went poorly?
where did I react well / react poorly?
where did we have too much information / where did we have not enough information?
what did we find easy / what did we find difficult?
where did we use our allotted time well / where did we use time poorly (or even run over-time)?
Finally, with the information you have discovered, ask the question "how can I improve on this in the future?" A useful closing to a time of reflective practice.
By continuing to follow this approach, it will start to become second nature as you go through the regular decision-making process: this will make it easy to do reflections afterward, as you will find it easier to gather the relevant information you need for the next reflection!
You can read more about the process here in this library guide on reflective practice.
What process do you follow at the end of a decision or a series of decisions?