Alone or together?

Most people are used to thinking in “either or” modality. We like things well packaged, tidy, and clean. We don’t like messy, uncertain, “both and” thinking. We hate “not knowing.” Yet, the creative, innovative edge is usually found in the messy, uncertain, not knowing spaces.

Let’s take the "alone" or "together" issue. As a leader, do you need to spend more time thinking alone or together with other people? I have read countless arguments both ways. And, like many times happens, my take on it is. . . BOTH!

Alone

Last year I wrote a post explaining why leaders need reflection On that post I suggested that reflection helps us hold the door of our mind open long enough for new perceptions, ideas, and solutions to emerge. If you don’t take time ALONE to pause and reflect, to develop your thinking and vision, to learn from your experiences, you can’t contribute as effectively. You can't add real value to your organization.

Taking time to reflect alone can help you integrate theory with practice. It can facilitate insight and stimulate self-discovery. As you question, and perhaps even change your personal assumptions, reflection can broaden your perspectives and lead you to deeper understanding of complex or ambiguous situations.

How much. . .

• Do you want to be an effective leader?
• Do you want your organization to be productive and profitable?
• Do you want your work to be meaningful?
• Do you want to learn, improve, and grow?

If you answered "very much so" to any of these questions, you have provided yourself with good reasons to making time for reflection a habit.

Together

On the other hand, it is also important to reflect upon the work you do together in your organization. Do you have in place a reflective process? Do you take time with your team to identify opportunities, and reflect together?

What does reflecting together involve? How can you as a leader encourage reflecting together? Here are some suggestions:

• Give time to the reflecting process as a team, in meetings, as you work together
• Encourage people to “think on their feet,” or take a moment to reflect as they are taking action
• Be clear about reflecting upon the actions you have already taken
• Consider links to theory and practice when reflecting on a subject
• Consider what are your current practices
• Look for ways to improve, maintain and - most importantly - act upon what you discover
• Structure your actions with timescales, responsibilities and the opportunity to reflect upon what you have achieved (or not)
• Feedback to colleagues and teams, reflecting upon your actions
• Make further changes or adjustments when reflection shows the need for it.
• Be aware of and use, reflective 'tools' available to you, such as quality improvement or quality assurance schemes, and other self-evaluation and group-evaluation form

Benefits

What can you achieve when you combine reflecting alone and together? The benefits are many. I will list here just a few. I’m sure you can add many more to the list.

• Effective learning experiences

• New ways of seeing familiar things
• Personal and professional development

• Continuous quality improvement

• Shared understanding

Remember. . .

Things are seldom “either or.” Reflecting "alone" AND "together" can put you in that calm space amid the hurricane of theory, practice, technology, strategy, and outputs. It’s in that calm space where learning, creativity, development, and innovation happens. As a leader, you need to jealously guard spaces for reflecting alone AND together.

Photo by: suzannelong