Reflection: Elevating L&D Practice

When Kristina Tsiriotakis joined Deciem¹ in early 2019 as their first dedicated L&D professional, she stepped into a workplace full of creativity and energy. “People kept saying ‘That’s so Deciem,’ but I didn’t know what that meant,” she explained. There were no documents, no articulated values, no formal strategy to draw on.

To make sense of her new environment, Kristina began journalling. She captured moments of conversation, observation, and instinct – fragments of culture in motion. “I started to think almost like a cultural anthropologist,” she said. This reflective practice became her way of learning the organisation from the inside out.

Watching the creative team work through a product development session, Kristina noticed not just what they were creating, but how they worked together – democratically, inclusively, and with deep respect for one another’s artistry. “That’s a Deciem value,” she realised. A value not defined by policy but lived through behaviour.

Her journalling didn’t just help her get her bearings – it became the foundation of a learning strategy deeply grounded in the organisation’s authentic culture.

Kristina’s approach demonstrates reflection in action – not as a luxury, but as a vital learning tool. In this blog, we’ll explore how reflection can elevate your practice as an L&D professional and how you can enable it in others to support impactful learning.

Reflection as a Professional Learning Habit

As L&D professionals, we’re often so focused on enabling others to learn that we forget to invest in our own development. But reflection is one of the most powerful learning tools we have – and it’s always available to us.

Reflection helps us pause and make sense of what we’re experiencing. It deepens self-awareness, strengthens decision-making, and supports behaviour change. In a fast-moving, complex world, it gives us the space to ask: What did I learn? What does it mean? What will I do next time?

And yet, reflection often gets crowded out. We tell ourselves we’re too busy. Or we’re unsure what to reflect on or how. We might even assume reflection needs to be a big, formal process – but it doesn’t.

Reflection can be as simple as:

• Journalling for 10 minutes at the end of the week — Capture key moments, lessons, or questions that surfaced.
  
• Holding a short debrief with a colleague after a learning session – Discuss what worked, what to improve, and how to build on it next time.
  
• Doing a quick ‘stop, start, continue’ review of your day – A simple way to reflect on behaviours, outcomes, and mindset.
  
• Reflecting with a peer or mentor over coffee – Sometimes talking through an experience reveals more than thinking alone.
  
• Creating a ‘lessons learned’ list at the end of a project or phase – Consolidate insights while they’re fresh and still relevant.

Kristina Tsiriotakis’ journalling habit is a perfect example. She made sense of her new role by observing, recording, and reflecting in real time. Over time, this habit gave her the clarity to design a learning strategy aligned with Deciem’s true culture.

Whether you’re stepping into a new role, navigating change, or simply wanting to grow, building a reflection habit can help you continuously learn more intentionally. And the more we reflect ourselves, the better we become at enabling others to do the same.

Enabling Reflection in Others

Reflection strengthens understanding, improves performance, and supports behaviour change. Research² confirms its impact:

• People who spent just 15 minutes reflecting on a task performed 23% better on subsequent tasks than those who didn’t.
  
• In work-based learning, reflection helps connect theory with practice and builds mental models – essential for applying learning to real situations.
  
• Structured and specific prompts make reflection far more effective, leading to deeper insights.

These findings confirm what many L&D professionals know intuitively: reflection matters. The opportunity is to use it more intentionally in our work. Here are six practical ways L&D professionals are doing just that, drawn from real-world examples on the Learning Uncut podcast:

Six Practical Ways to Support Reflection in Learning

1. Encourage Personal Journalling – Invite learners to keep a learning journal to reflect on experiences and track growth. Example: At AstraZeneca, 80% of participants in a 30-day journalling experiment sustained the habit, deepening their learning. (Episode 128)

2. Support Reflection Through Storytelling When building mindset and behavioural change, provide structured opportunities for learners to share personal stories. Example: At Shopify, reflection prompts and storytelling helped leaders surface limiting beliefs and adopt a growth mindset. (Episode 64)

3. Structure Reflection with Frameworks – Use tools like Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle or “What? So What? Now What?” to scaffold deeper thinking. Example: Brad Hodge at La Trobe University created a chatbot that guided students through Gibbs’ cycle, prompting meaningful reflections. (Episode 155)

4. Create Space for Group Reflection – Build regular team reflection into projects or learning cycles. Example: Social Futures embedded reflection into change programs to support shared learning and improvement. (Episode 13)

5. Use Visual or Physical Prompts – Add tactile or visual aids to make reflection more engaging and accessible. Example: Tasmanian State Service managers used printed guides with reflection activities to apply learning in their roles. (Episode 121)

6. Equip Managers to Coach Reflection – Equip managers to ask reflective questions during check-ins or debriefs. Example: Fletcher Building leaders used a tool to reflect on safety behaviours, embedding learning in everyday practice. (Episode 140)

Start with One Reflection

Reflection doesn’t require hours of solitude or a beautifully bound journal. It starts with one moment. One question. One pause to notice what’s working – and what’s ready to evolve.

As L&D professionals, when we reflect, we grow. And when we build reflection into learning experiences, we help others do the same.

If you’re ready to put reflection into practice, join me for the #ReflectToElevate LinkedIn Challenge from 5 to 10 May 2025. Over six days, we’ll explore different aspects of reflection – from personal insights to enabling others – with daily prompts designed to help you build this powerful habit. Each prompt takes just minutes to consider but offers lasting value for your practice.

To participate, simply follow me on LinkedIn or check out the event on the Learning Uncut website for more details. The challenge is designed for busy L&D professionals – quick to engage with, but rich in impact.

And if you’d like more structured support to deepen your professional practice through reflection, explore our Learning Uncut Mentoring— where guided reflection is at the heart of your development journey. How will you reflect today?

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1) As told by Kristina Tsiriotakis in Learning Uncut Episode 56

2) Explore the research that the three observations in this blog post are drawn from:

• Giada Di Stefano et al. — Learning by Thinking: How Reflection Can Spur Progress along the Curve
• Ruth Helyer — Learning through reflection: the critical role of reflection in work-based learning
• Bettina Renner et al. — Effects of Prompting in Reflective Learning Tools