Are you talking to me?

Emma Weber

I often say to clients that Turning Learning into Action is more about having a conversation with yourself to foster deep internal reflection than a discussion with your coach. But it’s not always easy to have the quality of conversation with yourself that promotes reflection without assistance and guidance. Here’s where the phone fits in perfectly with our work. Using the phone in a guided conversation with your coach is a convenient and effective alternative to self-talk.

But what if your coach is unavailable? What’s the next best way to achieve the benefits of internal reflection without that guided conversation? Personally, I write in my journal. For me, writing allows me to work through the changes I want to make and I find it really does help me reflect deeply on what I’ve learnt and what I want to achieve.

So I was delighted to see that CCL (Centre for Creative Leadership), whose work I really admire, featured the use of learning or reflective journals in a blog post recently.

CCL recommends using “learning journals or reflection journals as tools for gaining insights into your leadership journey. The process of writing and reflection builds self awareness, encourages learning and opens the door to adaptability.”

Mary Lynn Pulley and Michael Wakefield in Building Resilience How To Thrive in Times of Change outline the 3 keys parts to a journal entry:

Event or experience – describe what happened, be as objective as possible and stick to the facts.
Reaction – describe your reaction to the event, be as factual as possible. Consider what you wanted to do, what you actually did, what were your thoughts and what were your feelings?
Lessons – Think about the experience and your reaction to it. What did you learn from the event? Do you see a pattern in your reactions? What would you do differently next time? What can you do to support yourself in this?

A very valuable reflection tool that can offer great insights – and in the absence of any formal Turning Learning into Action it’s a great alternative.
I’m off to buy a new notebook – before I start talking out loud.

Emma Weber is a recognized authority on the transfer of learning. As CEO of Lever–Transfer of Learning, she has helped companies such as Telstra, Oracle and BMW deliver and measure tangible business results from learning. She has also been a guest speaker at learning effectiveness conferences worldwide and authored the hugely successful book “Turning Learning into Action“. Much more detail around the issues and solutions examined in this article are available in the book – please feel free to download a free chapter. Emma and her team also developed Coach M, a coaching chatbot that delivers fully scaleable learning transfer. She is also a co-author of the books Making Change Work, and Designing Virtual Learning for Application and Impact. Her work and approach is also featured in Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers by Megan Torrance (Author), Foundations of People Metrics and Analytics – by Renjini Joseph and an ATD 10-minute case study series – Chatbot Coaching for Learning Transfer.