The Power of Reflection

Reflection after the fact is not a popular practice among western management.   True, meetings to analyze results are held, but are root causes identified?  Or is it an exercise in finding the best excuse possible to explain results we don't understand?

Management gurus have implicitedly suggested reflection in their general approaches to continuous improvement.   Some examples could be (in bold the reflection part of the process):

• Deming, with the Plan-Do-Check-Act 
• John Boyd, with OODA, Observe, Orient, Design, Act
• Eli Goldratt, with the Five Focusing Steps, warning of inertia in Step 5.

Matt May recently described the reflection process that the former and very successful NY chief of police William Bratton used to apply with his team.  Initially developed by the US Army, the method is called an After Action Review (AAR), and some of the main principles are the following:

• It is mandatory and held after a key milestone, to check the effectiveness of a strategy, tactic or action
• It reviews both expected and unexpected effects that were observed in reality, regardless of if they were positive or negative in nature
• Three basic questions are asked to understand the results:  what was supposed to happen, what actually happened, how do we account for the differences.

The analysis of expectations versus results is ingrained in the Toyota Culture, as part of the kata that everyone must follow.   The late Eli Goldratt also placed great emphasis to understand the cause and effect of environments, and particulary when surprises, or gaps between expectations and results happened.   He used to tell the story of a fashion clothing manufacturer that sold all the collection they had launched early in the season.   Management was very excited as this had been a great success.   But then Eli reminded them that what it meant was they had run out of stock, and were unable to replenish as quickly as possible, and if this could have been done, sales would have been significantly larger.   This insight caused the management to reflect about these kinds of situations, and redefine their criterias of success.

So, do you reflect on what your actions and the gap between expectations and reality?  If so, what can you improve?