Reflect to Create
2. What the research said and what it means for leaders
2.1. Defining reflection for today
What emerged from the data was that the leaders had experienced reflection as an intentional process of retreat, reflect and return. That this was a conversation with experience; as the participants said:
"to stop the busyness and stand back",
"finding space"
and
"taking time out to think"
Reflection was defined from the data as:
"a different, particular and radical form of inquiry and thinking – which had a rigor and a process – and which enabled leaders to integrate their learning from their experiences and to develop new understandings to apply in the world".
This flow of retreat, reflect and return enabled the leaders to journey through a process, which mapped against Schamer's Theory U model for letting go, to sense and to presence in order to let come. It enabled leaders to stop habitual downloading and unconscious projection. They could then become open and receptive to what is wanting to emerge. In quantum physics, this is the zero‐point field teaming with life, possibility and potential; it is from this deeply reflective space that new insights and choices can naturally emerge for wise action. This process is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Reflections' flow process.
The leaders reported that they had developed their own questioning frameworks. But a generic format of questions for inquiry seemed to emerge which broadly included:
Retreat
What is inviting me to stop?
What my current reality?
What is my inquiry?
What am I assuming and need to let go of in order to see afresh?
Reflect
What am I sensing from my body and from the wider field?
Am I being fully present to what is wanting to emerge?
What am I learning?
What new perspectives and possibilities are emerging?
Return
What new choices for decision‐making and elegant action are now emerging?
How do these choices get tested?
One leader from the research [22] described it as:
"a fluid process of sense making to make meaning ….. of making the unconscious conscious".
Another said:
"to learn from experience – good or bad – and to put it into practice".
As I wrote:
"Reflection was seen as a gateway into other lands; for BIGGER conversations within BIGGER landscapes of work and life, and which always impacted on the work. The depth and value of the process appeared to depend on the extent to which all of their heart, mind, body and soulful intelligences rather than just the rational logical brain were engaged with the question"