AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Critical Reflections
How Groups Can Learn from Success and Failure
IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOKS
Aimed at managers and executives who are concerned with their own and others’ development, each guidebook in this series gives specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership problem.
| LEAD CONTRIBUTORS | Chris Ernst |
| André Martin | |
| CONTRIBUTORS | Joan Gurvis |
| Kelly Hannum | |
| Michael Hoppe | |
| Richard Hughes | |
| Cynthia D. McCauley | |
| Chuck Palus | |
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS | Martin Wilcox |
| EDITOR | Peter Scisco |
| ASSOCIATE EDITOR | Karen Mayworth |
| WRITER | Selby Bateman |
| DESIGN AND LAYOUT | Joanne Ferguson |
| CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS | Laura J. Gibson |
| Chris Wilson, 29 & Company |
Copyright © 2006 Center for Creative Leadership.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
CCL No. 429
ISBN-10: 1-882197-93-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-882197-93-4
CENTER FOR CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Critical Reflections
How Groups Can Learn from Success and Failure
Chris Ernst and André Martin
THE IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK SERIES
This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) has generated, since its inception in 1970, through its research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared—in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working together to understand and generate practical responses to today’s leadership and organizational challenges.
The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. In doing that, the series carries out CCL’s mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We think you will find the Ideas Into Action Guidebooks an important addition to your leadership toolkit.
Table of Contents
Leading with Critical Reflections
Leadership and Organizational Learning
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
Critical Reflections is a process that leaders can use to help their groups learn lessons from key events, positive or negative. The basic process is short and simple. It begins with a key event and includes three stages: exploring—reliving the event and sharing perceptions of what happened; reflecting—reaching an understanding of how and why it happened; and projecting—harvesting lessons for the future. The goal is to create a specific action plan that will set the stage for a productive future.
Leading with Critical Reflections
In a world of complexity and rapid change, one certainty is that individuals, groups, and organizations that can continually learn from experience will be more flexible at meeting the challenges of tomorrow. When people undertake shared work over time, certain key events stand out as having the potential to teach lasting lessons to the group as a whole. These types of experiences are the classrooms in which people learn, improve, and grow.
Yet these lessons of experience can easily be missed in the pursuit of the next big project, client, or initiative. To capture the best repeatable practices and identify avoidable mistakes, groups need to be able to learn in the moment, as they work, not afterward when it’s too late to change.
Group leaders play an important role in this process. As a leader, have you ever
• been part of a project that never felt complete—in which, somehow, things were left unsaid or tasks left undone?
• found yourself halfway into an initiative when you suddenly had a feeling of déjà-vu but couldn’t pinpoint what you had learned the last time around?
• felt you let an opportunity float by—an opportunity to capture meaningful learning for yourself, your group, or your organization as a whole?
• been part of an event or initiative and felt frustrated that the lessons experienced by the group could not be transferred