Reflective practice in context: Business
“…we are constantly engaging in notifications, social media, texts, emails. And yet the most creative moments come when we put all that aside. That’s why sometimes people’s best ideas come in the shower. So as an entrepreneur, make time for that reflection [and] ability to connect with your best ideas…”
– Arianna Huffington
What is reflective practice in business?
Reflective practice is the habit of engaging in examination of your experiences, actions and decisions. It involves questioning your assumptions and considering the context, emotions, intentions, and implications behind events and learning from them. It presents the opportunity to turn what might be considered a failure into a valuable learning opportunity from which you can grow as a student and a business professional.
This reflection can take place formally (like an essay connecting reflections to theory) or informally (like writing a personal journal). You might reflect individually or in collaboration with classmates, teachers, colleagues or mentors. Your reflective practice can be written, verbal, or simply just an intentional moment to look back on an experience in your day so you don’t miss the chance to learn from it. Applying these lessons to your skills and knowledge will help you in your student success and professional development.
Why is it important?
Business is a vast field and so are the uses for reflective thinking and practice within it. Whether you’re studying relationships in international business, doing digital marketing research, running a finance project, or starting your own business, the ability to reflect and improve is a valuable skill. Take the opportunity to learn and apply it while you’re studying so that you’re ready to benefit from it in workforce.
Reflective practice is beneficial in the business world because it:
- helps students make meaning of their learning and then transfer it to the cultural context of business practice, implement real-world solutions, and continue reflection
- develops the logical and critical thinking skills that are crucial in business and is a key element in entrepreneurship and innovation
- builds performance by developing discipline and self-regulation, which contributes to self-awareness and confidence
- builds management and leadership skills
- leads to positive change in the culture of organisations
- allows learners and professionals to view and use challenges as learning opportunities rather than roadblocks or failures
- prevents problematic situations from recurring
- teaches people to consider things from different perspectives and study their own biases. This is an important skill for a manager or project leader as it helps build empathy and can improve decision-making and rapport with staff and stakeholders
- strengthens cultural awareness and understanding between individual business professionals, stakeholders, and companies. This is especially important when collaborating and making global business connections
- helps individual professionals and companies figure out what went well and what could be done differently, which saves time, effort, money, and stress next time.
Reflective activities
During your studies and in your professional career, you will do a lot of reflective thinking. Sometimes it will be explicit, perhaps even an assessment task, and other times it will be part of what you’re working on, and you’ll do it without realising.
For example, you might need to write a reflective essay discussing how your experiences relate to business management theories and how this will inform your future career. Your essay will follow a set structure, and you will step through the different stages of reflection explicitly.
On the other hand, early in your career you might be facing a roadblock and meet up with a trusted colleague to talk about it. They will encourage you to look at it from different perspectives, think back on what you’ve tried so far and why it hasn’t worked, and then together you will come up with an action plan based on the discussion. That (hypothetical) conversation with your colleague was an example of reflective thinking and practice.
Here are some more examples of types of reflection you’re likely to do in your studies and future career:
Reflect
Reflection prompts are a great way to get into the habit of intentionally examining your feelings and experiences. You might like to write your answers in a journal or think things over and just note down your next steps.
Here are a few prompts for you to reflect on:
- What have I learnt recently that excited or surprised me? Why did I feel that way? Will I take the information and use it in my own professional practice?
- What are some of my strengths in my field? What are some of the areas I feel less confident in?
- Is there someone in my industry who I look up to and would like to emulate? What are their positive qualities? What is it about them that I admire so much?
- What is one of my current career goals? Am I actively working towards it in some way? How am I measuring my progress? Are there any small successes I can celebrate to help me stay motivated towards achieving my main goal?
Asking the right questions: reflective prompts in context
How do you think the people described below could benefit from reflective practice? Can you think of some reflective question prompts that would help them learn from their different situations and set them on the right path? You can expand the ‘reflective prompt’ sections to see some suggestions.
Carlos is a project manager for a tech company. Despite his years of experience, he’s facing a significant challenge with his current project team. They’re all experienced professionals, but communication breakdowns and slow progress have become problems. Carlos has also noticed that his team members aren’t coming to him with their doubts and issues anymore.
What questions could Carlos ask himself to benefit from reflective practice?
A marketing student, Zeke, attends a talk by a guest speaker in the social media marketing industry. Zeke is very impressed by the speaker and the 90-minute talk makes them feel a sense of enthusiasm and motivation. They leave the talk feeling really inspired but not sure what to do next.
What reflective questions would help Zeke benefit from this positive experience?
Linh is an entrepreneur who has been working on her business for a year and is starting to feel like things have gone off course. The business is building momentum, but she doesn’t feel satisfied with it and is finding it hard to stay motivated.
What could Linh reflect on to figure out why she feels this way and whether to continue with her business?
Expandable sections transcript
Structuring reflective writing
It’s easy to start writing down the details of an experience, but remember, you don’t want to produce a description or a summary without reflecting on its importance and what you’ve learnt. Some people find it more effective to use a model of reflection to structure their thoughts when they’re writing. One such model is DIEP, which is an acronym for Describe, Interpret, Evaluate, and Plan. Getting into the routine of structuring your reflective writing will be especially useful when you need to write things for others to read, such as reflective essays and journal entries for assessment. See how this model can be used to write a reflective journal entry for project management on RMIT Learning Lab.
You can read about other reflective models on the Reflective Writing page.
You now have a solid idea of what reflective practice is and how it can benefit you in your studies and career — but remember, the ability to examine your experiences, analyse and evaluate them, make informed decisions, and continuously refine strategies extends beyond the realm of business. Critical reflection is a transferable skill, which means you will be able to use it in other areas of your life. It can be a tool for personal growth and wellbeing as well as a skill that employers in all industries find attractive. You can explore the other pages in this chapter to learn more about reflective practice in general and in other disciplines.
Before you go, you might like to check out this 11-minute TED Talk on reflection by business leader Paul Catchlove – ‘The Habit That Could Change Your Career’.
Clifford, C. (June 2017). Self-made millionaire Arianna Huffington shares the No. 1 thing you need to do to be successful, CNBC
Catchlove, P. (2022, September). The habit that could improve your career. [TED video] (CC BY–NC–ND 4.0 International)
Ono, A. and Ichii, R. (2019). Business students’ reflection on reflective writing assessments, Journal of International Education in Business, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 247-260.
Illustration: UnDraw, Katerina Limpitsouni
Character images generated using Adobe Firefly. Not to be used for commercial purposes
