Multiple lenses, Dark Mirrors, Warped Reflections and the blinding effect of Halo’s
Tags: Exposure, Experience and Expertise; Tunnel of Perceptual Skew; Back to the future; Reflection
Reflective practise is a key constituent of expertise in Coaching and Multi-disciplinary practise. The act of reflection (Click link for more) generates insight in to our behaviour, actions and decisions, making us more aware, and assisting learning from our experiences.
I question whether the act of reflection is sometimes triggered by failure and the deliberate, purposeful act of deep reflection is born out of a need to understand why this was. This leads me to wonder whether reflection at times can act as inhibitor and negative cognitive construct. Imagine looking in to a ‘warped’ mirror and believing that the reflection staring back at you is ‘truth’? Perhaps, the reward for being reflective has negative consequences, the operant effect of encouraging the reflector to dwell on failure is a ‘reward-stimulus’ association between a behavior, emotion or outcomes and the subsequent reinforcement bond this creates. This will surely over time condition the coach or practitioner to dwell on the darker feelings, emotions and behaviors which in turn, could skew perspectives, perceptions and sense of worth.
Our emotions cast a shadow over our recall and taint memories, shaping them, re-writing them and leaving a particular halo on our experiences that then reinforce them as positive or negative. So if failure is the catalyst for reflection then our key source of learning from experience is from ‘the darker’ experiences. Do we interrogate our successes in the same way and seek to understand why we were successful? Self serving bias and attribution will also likely cast a positive HALO over our actions and contribution which, may leave us believing that we did more and performed better than perhaps we did.
Our deeply embedded values, beliefs and our true behaviour are shaped through our upbringing and both challenged and further developed by trauma. Those deeply emotional experiences that take time to recover from, change us and create contours across our lives. These ‘big’ moments are very difficult to reflect on and yet, hidden in this mirror is insight in to our emotional intelligence, behavioural triggers, inter-personal relationships and our truly held values and beliefs.
If reflection is looking at a warped mirror expecting to see ‘truth’ then it carries with it some pitfalls and danger. Failure is easy to ‘reflect’ upon but, it can be superficial and a negative reinforcer. Success is likely overlooked, because of how we attribute the wins, we probably never really study this reflective mirror deeply enough and when we do, we might discover insights that challenge our ego. Trauma, is often a dark mirror. When we peer in to this, we often see the worst and the best of ourselves and can discover much insight into who we are and why. In trauma, we can perhaps understand our successes and failures on a deeper level.
Truly deliberate reflective practise requires us to look at ourselves and our behaviour through multiple lenses as part of a daily routine, not only unpacked when we come up short. To assist this, we must be careful not to associate reflection only with failure as we run the risk of positively reinforcing negative emotions and actions which might further taint and skew our perceptions of ourselves. This raises a question for me, could personal reflection be augmented through critical friends, passive observers or devils advocates who can offer alternative voices, perceptions and feedback on the reflectors thinking processes and patterns and is it important when reflecting, to isolate emotion (good or bad) from action, and in doing so attempt to understand both in isolation and in their bond?
