Articles
Notes on reflection and dialogue, written from what we see in practice.
AnswersDoes more reflection time actually help?
There's research on how much people write, but none on where the time goes. Why we think the useful range is four to six hours a month, why you don't need to add time to get there, why daily and weekly minutes do different jobs, and how the mix changes by team — from the people who build a reflection app.
AnswersWhy journaling doesn't stick
Journaling doesn't fall apart because you lack discipline. Here's what the research actually says about writing, what the methods that last have decided in advance, three things worth dropping, and why doing it alone is the hard part.
AnswersWhen you can't name what you're feeling
\"I'm just off today\" is hard to do anything with, because nothing has a name yet. Naming isn't a vocabulary problem — it's a search problem. Here are two maps for finding the word, from people who build a reflection app.
AnswersWhen your report says "I don't really have anything" in the 1:1
\"Nothing to talk about\" in a 1:1 usually isn't disengagement. Two different things hide underneath it — not being able to retrieve, and not knowing what's safe to say — and neither one moves by meeting more often. What to ask instead, from people who build a reflection app.
GuidesYou don't have to invent your own reflection questions
Sitting down to reflect and drawing a blank usually isn't a writing problem — it's a missing question. Good questions come in an order, and the one you need changes with the kind of day you had. Here's how to choose, from people who build a reflection app.
AnswersHow do you know a client has changed?
Coaching outcomes resist measurement, and confidentiality means you can't show your work. Change does leave a trace, though — in language. Here's what the research found, and what it takes to put a client's earlier words somewhere you can both read them again.
GlossaryHansei is not the only Japanese word for reflection
If you've met hansei, it was probably through Toyota. Japanese has at least five words in this territory, and which one gets used depends on the room you're standing in — the factory, the classroom, the sprint retro, the HR department. The differences are practical, and one of them is a criticism of us.