I really relate to Harold’s comment about testing his ideas in different client projects. I find that I do something similar when I am teaching: I introduce something that I’ve been thinking about because of my reading or my research or even another class, and then I see how it lands, and then I keep developing it. It’s a fantastic way to continually be learning and refining my ideas.
For this activity, I quickly scrolled through X (boo, hiss) and found a post where someone had shared a segment of Jimmy Carr responding to Louis Theroux’s ‘Manosphere’ documentary and talking about how he respected the idea of targeting young men, but also saying that we need different/better voices providing a more positive narrative for those young men. He elaborated on this point by providing a series of contrasts — e.g., someone could either be a king or a tyrant, a transformer or a manipulator, and so on. He asked why we are so focused on pointing out the negatives (i.e., the tyrant, an example of toxic masculinity) and place less emphasis on praising and highlighting the positives (i.e., the king, or what you might call ‘healthy masculinity’ — my term). As he was speaking, I recognised that he was making a similar argument to the one I have made about how we teach reflective practice in professional contexts; we tend to tell people to use reflection to identify what went wrong so that they can fix it, but we rarely emphasise reflection as an opportunity to consider what went well so we can repeat and build on it. This is one of the reasons why I was drawn to the idea of appreciative inquiry even though I know it has a mixed evidence base. I found it interesting to see this very different example from another context because it shows how we do have this repeated tendency to focus on the negative (I know people say this is hard-wired into us because it has helped with our survival as a species). It made me wonder how things might be changed if we actively encouraged more positive (or, at least, more balanced) reflection from an early age. Might this not only facilitate a different type of reflective practice in professional contexts, but also a different approach to wider social discourses, such as that around masculinity? Can you think of other examples of focusing on the negatives rather than the positives — and how do you think a shift might alter our analyses and resulting actions?
This is perhaps a bit of a reach, but it is my attempt at adding some value. 🙂
“we rarely emphasise reflection as an opportunity to consider what went well so we can repeat and build on it” — this definitely sounds like both the Western education system and many performance management systems. I know that in my business I have had more success in reinforcing what I am good at rather than trying to improve what I am not so good at. The former was able to generate revenue for me.
I agree with your comment about performance management. I do feel that this type of reflection and overall focus within an organisation ultimately feels very punitive. It is encouraging to hear that taking a more positive approach has worked well for you and that I am not barking up the wrong tree!
Interestingly, there are different ways to add value, and you don’t have to excel in all of them. It is also important to connect with and/or team up with diverse people so that together, you can cover a wide spectrum of talents and subjects.
I really relate to Harold’s comment about testing his ideas in different client projects. I find that I do something similar when I am teaching: I introduce something that I’ve been thinking about because of my reading or my research or even another class, and then I see how it lands, and then I keep developing it. It’s a fantastic way to continually be learning and refining my ideas.
For this activity, I quickly scrolled through X (boo, hiss) and found a post where someone had shared a segment of Jimmy Carr responding to Louis Theroux’s ‘Manosphere’ documentary and talking about how he respected the idea of targeting young men, but also saying that we need different/better voices providing a more positive narrative for those young men. He elaborated on this point by providing a series of contrasts — e.g., someone could either be a king or a tyrant, a transformer or a manipulator, and so on. He asked why we are so focused on pointing out the negatives (i.e., the tyrant, an example of toxic masculinity) and place less emphasis on praising and highlighting the positives (i.e., the king, or what you might call ‘healthy masculinity’ — my term). As he was speaking, I recognised that he was making a similar argument to the one I have made about how we teach reflective practice in professional contexts; we tend to tell people to use reflection to identify what went wrong so that they can fix it, but we rarely emphasise reflection as an opportunity to consider what went well so we can repeat and build on it. This is one of the reasons why I was drawn to the idea of appreciative inquiry even though I know it has a mixed evidence base. I found it interesting to see this very different example from another context because it shows how we do have this repeated tendency to focus on the negative (I know people say this is hard-wired into us because it has helped with our survival as a species). It made me wonder how things might be changed if we actively encouraged more positive (or, at least, more balanced) reflection from an early age. Might this not only facilitate a different type of reflective practice in professional contexts, but also a different approach to wider social discourses, such as that around masculinity? Can you think of other examples of focusing on the negatives rather than the positives — and how do you think a shift might alter our analyses and resulting actions?
This is perhaps a bit of a reach, but it is my attempt at adding some value. 🙂
“we rarely emphasise reflection as an opportunity to consider what went well so we can repeat and build on it” — this definitely sounds like both the Western education system and many performance management systems. I know that in my business I have had more success in reinforcing what I am good at rather than trying to improve what I am not so good at. The former was able to generate revenue for me.
I agree with your comment about performance management. I do feel that this type of reflection and overall focus within an organisation ultimately feels very punitive. It is encouraging to hear that taking a more positive approach has worked well for you and that I am not barking up the wrong tree!
Interestingly, there are different ways to add value, and you don’t have to excel in all of them. It is also important to connect with and/or team up with diverse people so that together, you can cover a wide spectrum of talents and subjects.