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How Insane Are We?

by Irial O'Farrell on April 7th, 2010
11 Comments



Einstein had some pretty quotes but my favourite one is the one that goes:  “insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results” .  It’s short, sharp and shockingly true.  How many of us keep doing the same things, in the same way, hoping that something different is going to happen.  Most of us aren’t even aware that that’s what we’re doing.  And companies are no different.  How many times have you seen a project go wrong only for the exact same mistakes to be repeated in the next project?  Sound familiar?

Why I mention this is that the skill (ability?  habit?) of “reflection” is vital to the development of both individual leaders and organisations.  If I had to define the purpose of reflection, I would define it along the lines of “taking time out to assess what is and isn’t working, identifying ways to improve what isn’t working, putting the changes into play and seeing if the results are more effective”.  In short, reflection increases our chances of changing the inputs so that the outcomes might be different (and better).

Reflection is equally as important for an individual as it is for an organisation.  Learning from our mistakes, identifying how we can do things differently, both as individuals and within an organisation, allows us to grow, improve and innovate.  Some suggestions on building the habit include:

At the end of each day, assessing what went well, what didn’t and what could have been done differently.  Implementing the change and reflecting on the outcomes.  Then repeat the process.  In coaching terms, this is called “Trial and Success”.

Recognising the importance of Reflection and scheduling in “reflection time” as part of the day.  It might sound like a “luxury” but it’s what gets us off the treadmill of “same old, same old” and keeps our sanity levels in-check.

After a project, have a group meeting and reflect on the project, identify improvements and implement them for the next project.  A company that builds this into their every day life gives themselves a serious advantage over their competition that don’t do this.

If you actively take time out to reflect, as an individual or an organisation, what techniques do you use?



Category: coaching, HR and recruitment, Leadership, Self- development

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The Author: Irial O'Farrell

I work with Business Owners, Executives and Managers to help them overcome blockages so that they achieve their goals. I excel at getting people to think, getting people to talk and getting people to agree to giving things a go. In summary, I bring Clarity to the issues, provide on-going Support and guide them to achieve Results. I am an experienced Executive Coach and Leadership Development Trainer. I am qualified in 360 Emotional Intelligence and am constantly seeking new ways to assist my clients. http://www.evolutionconsulting.ie

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  • http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

    Great post Irial :)
    This ties in with time management – its vital to include it in any plan for a project or other activity. Reading, reflecting, learning are all key to development, and need to be incorporated into the timing of a project, or timing of an average day/week. Its the stuff that allows us to do our other tasks with ease, thereby saving time in the long term.
    It important to stop mopping the floor, take the time to turn off the leaking tap, and the mopping will not continue on forever.

  • http://blog.myprojecttracker.com Barney Austen

    Hi Irial. A nice reminder post. You are quite right – the amount of organisations and people who go around in circles repeating the same mistakes is just amazing. In a business context, I have found the main blocker to change the way that things are done links back to the willingness of the management team to admit that things have not gone quite right and that something needs to be done to fix it. Unfortunately self-preservation and politics can get in the way of the changes needed. If management don’t change, then nothing else will.

  • http://www.wchingya.com wchingya

    I agree with Elaine & Barney here. Including the importance of getting a group meeting to reflect on the project, gathering the do’s and dont’s, learning from each others experience hopefully to maintain the high quality service or mend the hole when there’s still chance. I do personal review month end for my client’s work, how I could have done it better, what I learn from this collaboration (pros and cons) so on. Hopefully I can keep a journal of that too – that’s the plan. :)

    @wchingya
    Social/Blogging Tracker

  • http://www.cgonlinemarketing.com/ Christina Giliberti

    Hi Irial,

    Fave phase – If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.
    Its a bit of a tongue-twister, but aptly describes your point.
    Reflection and feedback is all part of growth and allows you to learn about what works, what doesn’t, and crucially – why.

    Thanks for the read. I like!

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  • TheBlizzrdGroup

    Such an insightful article. I read a @HarvardBiz article: The iPad Won’t Save the Publishing Industry from Itself http://s.hbr.org/aAOBxM. Magazine publishers need to think about how Einstein’s insanity quote relates. There is so much potential out there. Too bad there is not very much creative thinking going on. Knowledge is power … imagination is more powerful! Our take on Einstein.

  • http://pk.linkedin.com/in/anismotiwala Anis Motiwala

    Irial, thanks for guiding me to your blog and this article. I found it inspiring and written in a convincing style. I agree with you that if we build in our effort budgets a slot for reflection (more so introspection) we would be able to make the best from our past mistakes and turn them into true learning points … converting “an expense item” into “an investment”.

    Great work. keep it up.

  • http://www.logoscoaching.net/ B @ logos coaching

    This post ties in with another I read yesterday about doing a values and goals audit every few months…maybe the universe is trying to tell me something ;-)

  • Anonymous

    Hi Irial. Great post. Here in Oracle, we have a Knowledge Management sponsored activity called an After Action Review (AAR), which we have been running for several years now.

    An AAR a structured review or de-brief process for analyzing what happened, why it happened, and how it can be done better next time (or how we can continue to do the things that worked well).

    In our European region we have a pool of trained AAR facilitators (of which I’m one), with the idea being that the facilitator needs to be independent (or impartial) from the process/project being reviewed. In the last few years I’ve facilitated a few AARs with project teams ranging from 3 to 20 participants. On the whole they have been very successful with the project sponsor always giving good feedback on the outcome.

    I’d like to say that everyone has bought into the concept of AARs but unfortunately that’s not the case. However anyone who has tried it at least once, always returns for a second helping, which I guess is a good measure of how well they are received.

    In recent times we have been focusing more on running and delivering AARs in a Virtual environment, given the fact that many of our teams are geographically dispersed, and in the current downturn it is not always possible to get them in one place.

  • Irial OFarrell

    Hi,

    Glad to see the post resonated with so many people and that some people and organisations actively encourage reflection and the associated learning, even if not everyone buys into it, as Frank points out. I think it definitely takes some level of maturity to admit that things don’t always go smoothly or effectively and that part of it may lie with management, as Barney points to.

    Does anyone else have a good example of how they approach the reflection process or good stories about how reflecting on something led to a changed behaviour and different outcome?

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