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Author: Christina Lovelock

Christina is an experienced BA leader, has built BA teams ranging in size from 5 to 120 Business Analysts and champions entry level BA roles. She is active in the BA professional community, attending and regularly speaking at events. Christina is an examiner for the International Diploma in Business Analysis and is also a director of the UK BA Manager Forum. She has co-authored the 2019 book, Delivering Business Analysis: The BA Service Handbook, which shares insights and findings from research into Business Analysis, practical guidance for BA leaders, and case studies from across the professional community. https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-lovelock

The Power Of Scenario Planning

True busines agility is achieved by considering what might happen in the future, and developing an outline response.

No one could have PREDICTED the current global situation, but some organisations were better PREPARED for it.

Whether you are delivering projects, products or services, it’s all about the future.

  • Increasing profit/market share
  • Increasing customer loyalty
  • Improving customer experience
  • Improving quality
  • Developing and retaining staff
  • Diversifying the offering
  • Decreasing costs
  • Reducing complexity

Each of these aims can be followed by the phrase “in the future”, as that is where they all reside. Most organisations believe they are thinking about the future, but they are usually just extrapolating the present, and that’s not the same thing at all. 

What is Scenario Planning?

Scenario planning is a strategic analysis tool which recognises the future is uncertain and unpredictable, and encourages us to explore how we can prepare for it.

There are three broad steps to scenario planning:

  • Consider what is the current reality for the organisation and wider world, and how that might be different in future.
  • Consider what those differences would mean for the organisation.
  • Act on this new knowledge. (This might be: develop a plan, mitigate a risk, explore an opportunity…).

There are many models that facilitate the process of scenario planning, which is usually run as a series of workshops with relevant stakeholders.


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Advantages of Scenario Planning

1. Framework

Scenario planning provides an opportunity and framework for people to contribute their fears and ideas in a legitimised and structured way. It’s proactive, and removes some of the worry of being perceived as ‘doom-monger’.

2. Awareness

It encourages us to think outside of our organisational boundaries, and lift our heads from the day-to-day rhythm and routine of work. It asks: what’s going on in our organisation? our sector? the wider economy? in society? for our customers? for our suppliers? and for our staff?

How might this impact our organisation in the future, and what can we do about it?

3. Calm

Scenario planning allows options to be really evaluated, and decisions to be taken before a situation actually occurs. In the face of a crisis, organisational and individual biases can cloud could good judgement, speed of response can overlook better options and fear and blame can impact relationships. It creates the time for a ‘plan for a plan’. Scenario planning offers no certainties, but gives the opportunity to identify indicators: “If we start to see X happening, then person Y will do Z”.

(Yes, some people supposedly thrive under pressure and enjoy adrenaline fuelled situations, but this is not business agility.)

4. Competitive advantage

If we are considering the future and preparing for it while others are not,  this gives us a clear advantage. We will be able to respond rather than react, move more quickly and demonstrate our organisational agility.

Common Traps of Scenario Planning

1. ‘Waste of time’

Because many, perhaps most, of the scenarios won’t actually happen, investing time in thinking about them may seem like a waste of time and effort. This may prevent a full range of scenarios from being effectively developed and discussed.

Most people have enough to worry about in their ‘day job’, and do not want to go exploring for further problems. This is narrow thinking and prevents business agility.

2. ‘Lack of imagination’

Some people cannot imagine a different world, and others can imagine it but are embarrassed to describe it. Many organisations do ‘financial planning’ by using a small number of variables (costs, predicated growth etc.) and model best, worst and most likely scenarios. This is safe thinking, and is unlikely to lead to any major breakthrough in organisation

3. ‘Overwhelmed’

It would be relatively easy for even a small group to come up with dozens of plausible scenarios, and generate hundreds of potential actions in just a few hours. Generating the scenarios, then narrowing them down to a manageable number is part of the processes. The discussion about the potential scenarios is often more valuable than identifying every possible future.

4. ‘File in the draw’

If no action is taken as a result of the scenario planning, then the value of the exercise will not be realised. ‘Action’ could range from agreeing options or decisions that will be made in certain situations to making significant changes in strategy or operations as a result of the information the exercise has revealed.

Conclusion

Organisations which can adapt will survive and thrive. The ability to adapt quickly is about giving people the time and space to consider how to respond to a range of scenarios, most of which will not come to pass. But for the ones that do – we ‘ll be ready. For the scenarios we didn’t see coming, our organisations will be more able to adapt because we recognise that the tomorrow cannot be extrapolated from today.

Reference:

Scenario Planning, Woody Wade, 2012

The A to Z of Business Analysis

“What is business analysis?” There is no snappy ‘definition’ of business analysis, but we know it when we see it.

It is hard to answer this question directly, so let’s consider some of the key the elements and areas of concern that constitute business analysis.

A Analysis

Let’s start with the basics. Analysis means to investigate or examine something carefully in a methodical way. So to do analysis you need to pick an area of focus, study it, see where it leads, find the right people, ask good questions, consider all aspects, apply logic and reasoning and use the full range of tools and techniques at your disposal. When we create an over simplification of analysis such as “write user stories” or “draw swim lane diagrams” we loose the essence of the of analysis.

B Business

The ‘business’ part of business analysis means the whole organisation or enterprise. From top to bottom, inside and out. Everything; including the market and context it operates within, its employees, customers, systems, structures, strategy and processes. The not-for-profit and public sector sometimes struggle with the idea of their organisation as a business, but business analysis is equally relevant in every organisation and every sector.

C Communication

‘Good BA with poor communication skills’ is an oxymoron. It is not possible to be a truly effective business analyst without good written and verbal communication skills, which you can tailor to the situation and the audience. Business analysis cannot be conducted in isolation, it requires collaboration. Collaboration is underpinned by good communication

D Diagrams

Visual communication is critical for project success. BAs need to be able to distil an hours’ conversation or a 20 page document down to a number of boxes and lines, to build understanding, alignment and agreement. This often takes bravery, and willing to risk being wrong.

E Empathy

Empathy is a core component of Emotional Intelligence, which all BAs need to strive to develop. Empathy allows us to see different perspectives, mediate between groups and understand the full impact of the changes we seek to introduce in our organisations.

F Facilitation

We provide a set of skills, process and techniques which support and enhance group working. This includes clarifying objectives, encouraging participation, practicing active listening and building commitment and ownership. These skills are not limited to a role within workshops, but an ongoing contribution BAs make to the success of change initiatives.

G Global

The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) [1] has more than 120 chapters all over the world. The profession is truly global, and exists in every industry and sector. Stand tall in the face of confusion and ignorance of our profession, you are part if something big.

H Holistic

We recognise that everything is interconnected and interrelated. We know process improvement will effect people, and system upgrades will impact data. BAs must always keep POPIT ™ [2] in mind!
By practicing an holistic approach to problem solving, we help our organisations address the real problems in the right ways.

I Information

Business analysis is obtaining, interpreting and presenting information. Business Analysts sometimes shy away from business information, and align themselves to process modelling rather than data modelling. Data and process are two sides of the same coin. Processes generate and consume data. Data must have a lifecycle and inform organisational processes such as decision making.

J Just enough and just in time

This has been a tricky transition for BAs. We like detail, rigour, even perfection. The acceptance that sometimes good enough is good enough is hard, and the concept of delivering a minimum viable product has taken some getting used to. We must continually challenge ourselves to avoid gold-plating and recognise the right thing is not always the best thing.

K Knowledge

BAs need to be able to build up knowledge of a new business area, domain or industry very quickly. BAs should be brining business analysis skills and knowledge to the table, but rely on others to be the authority on subject matter expertise.

L Learning

Continue professional development is critical for BAs. We are naturally curious and want to know more about our organisations, our professional discipline and how learning from other disciplines can help us improve the practice of business analysis. (So yes, we ask a lot of questions!).

M Mindset

BAs must cultivate curiosity and have a continual service improvement approach. Business analysis is a broad discipline, with so much to learn – we must encourage a growth mindset for ourselves and our organisations.


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N Needs

We go to lengths to separate wants from needs, and problems from solutions. BAs must navigate the political minefield of prioritising business needs; know when to challenge and when to concede, and remain objective and neutral as far as humanly possible!

O Objectives

Finding purpose, asking why, recognising assumptions and understanding what we are trying to achieve. Setting goals and objectives is critical to business and IT enabled change, BAs have a big part to play identifying problems and opportunities and agreeing objectives.

P Process

Process modelling, analysis and management is a key aspect of business analysis, but it is not the sum total of business analysis. Process analysis is a means, not an end. BAs must understand the purpose of process analysis, the value it offers organisations in terms of consistency, improvement, efficiency, training, knowledge management and competitive advantage.

Q Quality

In the time-cost-quality triangle, BAs are typically more concerned with quality, and PMs and other roles are typically more concerned with time and cost. Ensuring quality means ensuring that what is delivered addresses valid business needs and is fit for purpose.

R Requirements

Requirements Engineering is a professional discipline. It covers elicitation, analysis, validation, documentation and management (no ‘gathering’ in sight). Yes, anyone can write requirements, just as anyone can paint a wall. When you want it done right, you call in a professional.

S Stakeholders

Structured and rigorous stakeholder analysis is often overlooked. BAs have techniques to identify and analyse stakeholders and involve the right people in the right way at the right time.

T Technology

Digital Transformation and IT enabled change form a key part of many change initiatives. BAs must have sufficient technology knowledge to understand the landscape, ask the right questions and identify options and issues. BAs must not be intimidated by the technology, just because they are not ‘technical’.

U Users

User Journey | User Story | UAT. BAs must really know the users, and champion user needs and views when they are not in the room. The BA must act as the conscience for the project on all decisions made.

V Value

By collaborating with stakeholders, BAs can co-create value in our organisations [3]. This involves identifying where value might be offered, developing a solution and ensuing the value is actually realised.

W Work Package

We can analyse anything, but without agreed scope, timeframe and deliverables, the outputs we produce are unlikely to meet the expectations of others. Creation of a simple work package enables discussion on the focus and purpose of the business analysis needed.

X eXperience

UX and CX. These specialisms don’t exist in every organisation, so BAs need to be prepared to support projects and products in this space. By ensuring that non-functional requirements are brough into the conversation, we can ensure that expectations are understood and experience is considered.

Y “Yes, and…”

Typical BA responses to any question are often: “It depends…”, “Yes, but…” and “No.”. This has given us a bit of reputation for being negative/blockers. By reframing our natural responses to build on the ideas of others, we can bring forward our concerns in a constructive way.

Z Zoom

(…and Skype, GoTo Meetings, MS Teams and more!). BAs have placed much faith in face-to-face, and now need the confidence to adapt our methods to be virtual-by-default.

Conclusion

Many professions operate without a ‘definition’. What’s the definition of a painter and decorator? Someone who does painting and decorating. Yes its self-referential, but we can all imagine what this involves. Let’s help our customers and stakeholders understand what business analysis involves, by demonstrating the breadth of what we have to offer.

Further Resources:

[1] IIBA Chapters: www.iiba.org/membership/chapters/
[2] POPIT™: www.assistkd.com/knowledge-hub/business-alchemists-blog/reimagining-popit-model
[3] Delivering Business Analysis, Paul and Lovelock, BCS 2019: www.amazon.com/Delivering-Business-Analysis-Service-handbook-ebook/dp/B07XTM9LT9

Forget SMART, Aim 4A Goal!

The SMART acronym is considered best practice for objective setting, yet somehow objectives which are ‘made SMART’ become uninspiring and unintelligible.

 

We are told that individual, team and organisational objectives need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/ Relevant, Timebound). For the most part, goals and objectives should be something we set because we want to achieve them, but when we cryptically re-word, strip back to the specifics, take out the inspiration by dialling down to realistic and attach an (often) arbitrary deadline, they seem to lose their appeal.

How can we create goals we are actually inspired to work towards? By simplifying the processes and asking ourselves good questions.

Aim 4A Goal

4A is Achieve/Avoid/ Action Analysis. By creating an engaging table or diagram we can frame a goal that motivates us, identify what we need to be aware on pursuit of that goal and identify the next steps towards achieving it. Notice that is next steps, not every step. It is impossible to predict the future, but we can usually identify the activities which are a step in the right direction of the goal, even if we cannot yet see every move we will need to make.

Here are some of the questions to help to understand the goal and how to get there.

Achieve

It’s difficult to work out what your goals are, it may need some dedicated time and a few false starts to get to the real goal(s).

  • what do you want to do?
  • when do you want to do it by?
  • why?

It’s ok to aim big, it can be broken down into steps, many of which you might not know yet. It’s also fine to have a very narrow scope, that can be achieved through a very small number of actions. The key is to be sufficiently motivated to do the actions!

Avoid

Most things can be achieved, with enough time and attention, but at what cost? In the pursuit of goals we must consider the things which might distract us, and also the things we are unwilling to compromise on to achieve the goal.

  • what are the potential pit-falls?
  • what might get in the way?
  • what might be the unwanted impacts (on myself and others)?
  • what do I need to ensure I don’t neglect, in pursuit of this goal?
  • what risks am I unwilling to take?
  • what behaviours am I unwilling to engage in?
  • who might prevent it? (be honest).

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Just as important as planning the things we will do, is to identify the things we will have to give up or are unwilling to do.

Action:

Actions need to be tailored to address the goal, and avoid the issues identified. If we don’t highlight the things we want to avoid, we may take the wrong actions.

  • what can I do right now that moves me closer to my goal?
  • who can help or advise me?

For every action we take, we can ask “Is this contributing to my goal?” If not, we may still choose to do it, but consciously rather than inadvertently. Add actions to the list as they become apparent, and the next best step to take.

Example Goal

Achieve: Speak at a conference or event in the next 12 months.

Avoid: Excessive travel costs, impact on my project work.

Actions: Identify local events, find out submission process and deadline, develop sessions ideas at weekends.

When these actions are complete, identify the next steps which move towards the goal.

Decision making

Achieve/Avoid/ Action Analysis (4A) is also incredibly useful as a decision making framework. It helps keep everyone on track – “what are we trying to accomplish with the outcome of this decision?”, “what impacts don’t we want”, “what possible actions achieve the outcome and avoid the impacts?”. Often group decision making is difficult because people are not trying to achieve the same thing from the decision. Using 4A give the opportunity to build consensus on what we are working towards, address concerns via the ‘avoid’ list and jointly agree the actions which best hold the ‘achieve’ and ‘avoid’ elements in balance.

Example Decision: “Shall we reduce the training budget to save money?”

Achieve: Cost savings of X in this financial year

Avoid: Impacting staff morale, having people who do not know how to do their job, impacting customer service.

Actions: Investigate online delivery options, prioritise the training needs, defer some of the training, use train-the-trainer approach.

Conclusion

SMART has had its chance, and it wasn’t helping. Set goals that inspire and motivate you, work out what you need to avoid in the pursuit of those goals, then develop a plan to achieve them.

We also need to accept that we may need to change our goals. We may decide we don’t want to achieve what we once thought was important. Don’t work towards something you no longer want, just because you wrote it down or told a few people. In that case, Aim 4A New Goal, work out what that looks like, what you need to avoid, and what next step you can take.

Impostor Syndrome: Business Analysis Is NOT Just Common Sense

Impostor Syndrome seems to be particularly prevalent within the Business Analysis community. It’s time to consider why that might be, and how we can overcome it together.

Impostor syndrome is characterised by:

  • feeling like a fraud (“When are they going to figure out I don’t know what I’m doing?”)
  • believing success is unearned or just ‘lucky’ (“I was just in the right place at the right time”)
  • being plagued with self-doubt (“Who am I to do this?”).

When BAs hear about Impostor Syndrome, we experience a lightbulb moment. (“I thought it was just me!”).

BAs often down play our skills and effectiveness, we say things like “I didn’t really DO anything, I just got the right people together and asked the right questions” as if this is not an incredibly valuable skill!

Do not mistake the logical and sensible outcomes we are able to reach, due to many years of experience and developing our skills, as ‘common sense’. We have trained ourselves to be objective and see different perspectives. We have learned a wide range of techniques for engaging people appropriately, obtaining information and conveying that information in the best way possible.  

Business Analysis is a professional discipline, is growing in size and expanding around the world, it is supported by recognised qualifications and professional bodies. If some friends and colleagues don’t know what Business Analysis is – that doesn’t mean it’s not real or not valuable.

Here are some of the factors contributing to widespread BA impostor syndrome:

It’s just common sense:

Application of logic and evidence driven decision making can look like common sense, especially if our approach and techniques are not made visible to stakeholders. We forget that the tools we are familiar with, and the logical process we apply are not personality traits – they are our professional skills, honed and improved over many years of practice, and not everyone has these skills.

Anyone can call themselves a BA:

Unfortunately, anyone can start calling themselves a BA, and anyone who has ever facilitated a workshop or written some requirements can believe they have the BA skill-set. As a profession we can make it easier for employers to differentiate between genuine BAs and BAs-in-name-only by having membership of BA professional bodies including IIBA and BCS, by undertaking professional qualifications, by engaging with the professional community online and at events and we can encourage the BAs-in-name-only to up their game as well!

Just fell into it:

Most of us did not set out to be BAs. In fact, when we were making critical life choices about what to study and where to live, we did not even know the role existed. The fact that we have become BAs by accident doesn’t mean that we have to apologise for it, or play down how much we enjoy it or excel at it.


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Not a ‘real’ BA:

Some genuine BAs feel that they have come to the profession from circuitous route, or had a different path for them selves in mind. These BAs have often locked-in their professional identity to their industry, rather than their profession. For example, BAs in the financial sector who started their career in branch of a bank may believe it is their business knowledge, not their BA skill-set that allows them to do their job. If you have the skill-set and responsibilities of a BA, it may be time to allow yourself to see this as your professional identity.

What does a BA do?:

The BA role can look very different in different organisations and even within the same organisation. The BA role is no longer ‘new’, but there is still a great deal of role ambiguity [1]. Constantly having to explain the BA role can be tiresome, and make us question why it is not understood.  

Not technical:

Many BAs have a role in IT-enabled change, and can feel they have to apologise for not having a technical background. This can lead to a feeling of ‘anyone could do my job’ because we don’t have specific technical skills, like writing code. The skills we do have are just as valuable, and often more scarce within the tech industry!

There is no role for the BA in agile:

Some organisations and individuals, sadly, still hold this view, and BAs can find it crushing. BAs have consistently proved our contribution in all software development approaches, and the core of our professional discipline is strong enough that we should not feel pushed out by other specialist roles, such as UX, UR and PO.

The business have written their own requirements:

The implication here is that a group of business users can figure out what they need, document it and convey it to developers and or suppliers. We know that 9 times out of 10 this will not end well, but instead of feeling offended or excluded, we need to work with them to build the trust they need in our profession.

So what can we do about it?

  • Understand that impostor syndrome exists, and the majority of people experience it at some point in our lives [2].
  • Consider which of these BA impostor-factors are effecting how you see yourself and how you behave.
  • Talk about it! Find someone you trust, or engage a coach, and discuss your feelings in relation to your role and profession.

Conclusion

By allowing ourselves and our stakeholders to believe that ‘business analysis is just common sense’, we may become valued as individuals but we will never demonstrate the value of the professional discipline. This occurs frequently in organisations when certain individuals are constantly requested within a BA Service, as it is the individual BA who is valued and trusted, not the application of business analysis.

We must continue to stand-up for the activities we know need to happen that contribute to the successful delivery of software, projects and change initiatives. We must leave every stakeholder we encounter with a better understanding and appreciation for business analysis that when we met. And finally, we must value our skills, believe in our role and not see ourselves as impostors in our industry.

Further reading:

[1] Dr Debra Paul (2018) Defining the role of the business analyst.  http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/80476/1/86223494_Paul_Thesis.pdf

[2] Dr Pauline Rose Clance (1989). Take the Impostor Phenomenon test: www.paulineroseclance.com/pdf/IPTestandscoring.pdf

Be a Better BA Through Reflective Practice

Self-reflection is easy to say but hard to do. As BAs we love a framework, and here is a great one to guide us on how to really reflect and learn from ourselves.

In a world of constant input, so much to read, listen to and watch,  and so many people to learn from it seems almost impossible to believe that we can learn from ourselves with no input.

Are you really allowing yourself to learn from your own actions and experiences? Are you quick to judge your experiences? When we feel under constant pressure to maximise value, spend so much time in meetings, constantly consuming inputs and producing outputs, time for reflection can look like a luxury or a folly.

Make learning the ultimate goal of every activity and interaction.

The Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988) is in common use in many professions across the world, it has six straightforward stages:

  • Description: of the experience
  • Feelings and thoughts: about the experience
  • Evaluation:of the experience, both good and bad
  • Analysis: to make sense of the situation, your own actions and responses
  • Conclusion about what you learned and what you could have done differently
  • Action plan: for how you would approach/change your approach to similar situations in the future.

The cycle is equally relevant to help us to reflect on a major event or timeframe (such as “My last 10 years in this job” or a small event or encounter (such as “Two minute elevator ride with the Chief Exec.”).

We can use the framework to reflect on all common BA activities, such as workshops, interviews and outputs we produce.

1. Description

This is the narrative without commentary. No value judgements, no evaluation, just what happened.

  • What was the situation and context?
  • Who was involved?
  • What did I say and do?
  • What did I see and hear?

2. Feelings and thoughts

This what was going through my mind at the time, how the situation made me feel. This is not about asking ‘why was I so nervous?’ or ‘what made me angry?’ just identifying the thoughts and feelings.

  • What was I thinking at the time and now?
  • What where my expectations?
  • How did I feel?
  • How do I think others felt?

3. Evaluation

This stage allows us to make judgements about the experience. Was it good/ great/ ok or terrible? But we still don’t try to answer why we feel that way about the experience.

  • Did I enjoy it or not?
  • What was good and bad?
  • What went well/ not so well?
  • How did the reality compare to the expectation?

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4. Analysis

Now for the why.

  • Why did I feel that way?
  • Why did I act that way/ say that/ do that?
  • Why did things go well/ not so well?
  • Why did that happen? (What else do I know that helps me to make sense of the situation?)

5. Conclusion

This brings together all the previous questions, a chance to summarise and create key take-ways from the situation.

  • What did I learn?
  • How will I recap the situation to others?
  • What skills do I need to develop to get a better outcome next time?

6. Action Plan

So what, if anything, needs to happen next? This stage allows us to identify a range of actions, which might be ‘keep doing what I am doing’ or might indicate a different approach in future.

  • What will I do differently/ the same?
  • How will I develop the skills I have identified?
  • How will I put into practice the conclusions I have made?
  • How will I apply what I have learned?
  • How will I celebrate success?

Worked Example

A common question BAs are asked (and ask ourselves) is  “How was the workshop?”

Common answers might include:

  • “Long.”
  • “It was great, thanks for asking.”
  • “The room was hot.”
  • “OK.”
  • “I think everyone enjoyed it. We got some good feedback.”
  • “I’m exhausted.”
  • “We had some last minute drop-outs.”

These answers are a scatter-gun of thoughts, facts, feelings and evaluation. We are better than this! Let’s take a logical approach:

Description: There were 15 people, from 4 departments. 3 people sent their apologies on the day. We had a mix of whole-group and break-out sessions, and the workshop lasted 3 hours with a short break. A couple of people had to leave early.

Thoughts and feelings: Before the session I was nervous, and then a bit frustrated when I found out some key people weren’t coming. I hoped people would come with the right attitude, and also worried we had a lot to cover in the time. I knew I was well prepared for the session.

Evaluation: I enjoyed it, we did manage to stick to time, but it was a bit rushed at the end.  People seemed to be happy to contribute. The groups worked well, and I was pleased to see a range of different people give feedback. It got a bit noisy with three groups all working close to each other. Once we got started I wasn’t nervous anymore, but I found it difficult to bring the room back together after the break-outs.

Conclusion: I think three hours might be too long for people, so perhaps split the session down. This would take also take some of the pressure off me, I had to do so much prep work! Thinking about the groups in advance really helped though.

Action Plan: I am going to send a thank you email to everyone, we worked hard today. Next time I am going to book two rooms, so we can spread out a bit, and I am also going to phone people the day before and confirm with them they can attend or send a representative. We will limit it to two hours, and I will have better eye on timings, either by nominating a time keeper or setting a timer.

Applying the logical steps to structure a thorough response takes a little longer than a one word answer – but still only takes a few minutes and the learning is so much greater!

Conclusion

Self-reflection is critical to self-development. Self-awareness and personal development can also be achieved through feedback, but feedback without the power of self-reflection is wasted.

It is hard to reflect, and is even harder to avoid equating reflection with evaluation.  Allowing ourselves to make more time for structured reflection can help with every aspect of our lives. Its time to start asking ourselves questions, and finding our own answers. 

Further reading: Gibbs G (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods.