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Reflection is Key to Successful Teams

Chandni S Motwani

Do you use reflection practices in your work rituals?


I believe Design Thinking should not only be a one-off experience, but rather a way of thinking, a mindset. Company's experience its benefits best when it seeps into their team culture, norms, rituals, collaboration processes, project meetings, as well customer-facing services and products.


The question remains, how do we create this mindset in organisations? Well, first let me tell you about one key attribute of of Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design that I hold in utmost importance: Reflection.


Reflection is most evident in the Discover or Empathy phase of Design Thinking. However, I find it extremely important even in the Define and Test phase.  


The Discover and Empathy phases push us to observe, understand, and dig for the root causes, patterns, and sentiments that exist in a particular situation or person. It requires us to reflect on the true needs and obstacles.   


Reflection in the Define phases occurs during the process of Synthesis. Synthesis can be defined as the point where we have the most information in front of us, where ambiguity is highest, and we are seeking that "aha" moment or pattern that helps us identify a true need. (For a good discussion on Synthesis I love this post by Andrew Bird). 


We must reflect on our discovery to then define it. Similarly we must reflect on user’s feedback to then decide which direction to take our work. Therefore, enhancing our reflection skills is one of the key aspects to successfully creating an innovative mindset. Teams, individuals, and companies must create rituals of reflection as a critical step to developing innovation culture in their organisation.


I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions, or if you’d like to learn more, please get in touch!





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