Reflection Builds a Better Business

As John Dewey once said, “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” And it turns out he was right. According to a 2014 Harvard research article, learning from direct experience alone isn’t particularly useful.  Instead, they found that learning experiences are far more constructive when they’re combined with reflection or thinking back over the experience from a distance.

When you look back and reflect on the past year with intention and identify the key lessons learned through your experiences, you can gain powerful insight that will help you grow and improve. In fact, we highly recommend that you practice this theory before engaging in annual planning.

Of course, it can be tempting to move full steam ahead and propel into the new year without looking back because there’s so much to do. However, taking even a small amount of time to complete this exercise will have a positive impact on your probability of success.

To reflect on the past year, we suggest you ask yourself these questions: 

Based on my experiences of the past year…

…What should I start doing?

…What should I stop doing?

…What should I do more?

…What should I do less?  

After you’ve spent time answering these questions once, we suggest you take it one step further and set your answers. Then, a few weeks later review them.  Have they changed?  Do any stand out as a greater or lesser priority?

We also highly recommend that you share this exercise with your team, then discuss your answers in small groups. Those discussions can then lead you to identify your goals and priorities for 2017.

Bottom Line

If you take the time to reflect in 2016, you’ll conceive a better business in 2017 – cheers to a prosperous new year!