Reflective Practice - Thing 17

Thing 17 is another stop and reflect task but this time it is about deeper reflection. Not just paddling about in the pool of reflection but diving in:

Unsplash.com / Talia Cohen

Hopefully I won't have to go that deep but it reaffirms what I was trying to do at the start of the whole experience. I had started doing my own reflection series after the blog post on each Thing but looking back this stopped around Thing 8.  I didn't think it had been so long ago!  This was due to time pressure and also I started incorporating some reflective thinking in my Thing post so I didn't see the necessity of having a separate reflective post. However I think this is a practice that I'm going to have to try and pick up again - if I don't think reflectively about the task, how it made me feel and what I can do to alleviate any fears, then no-one else is going to do it on my behalf.

I'm going to look at using reflective practice in my daily work. I sit on a number of task and finish groups which obviously look at different tasks every year. But the whole process about how they work is replicated from one to another. The first time I had to take part in them was last year - this was also the same time that I first had to chair one of them.

My particular task and finish group was that of loan entitlements - basically looking at how the current set up of loan entitlements, who can borrow what and for how long, renewals and recalls. Scared didn't cover how I felt.  Not only was I chairing a group of people that I didn't know very well, but the task of the group was huge and such an integral part of the library. I was scared we'd get it wrong, that'd there would be lots of complaints about how things were better the old way and that it would basically be a mess.

We met for a number of times, and in order to make everyone feel included, I divided up the tasks between the group. This ranged from benchmarking to surveys to statistical information from the current LMS. I believe that this approach worked and have adopted it again in this year's task and finish group. It allowed me to get on with other bits and pieces, and to collate the information once certain tasks were finished, I have a 'problem' with delegating.  I don't do it often enough and I don't do it very well so this was a real struggle for me.  I had to realise that I couldn't do everything and other people can do tasks just as well if not better than me.  I had to let go.

I also found that I could chair the group. I wasn't great at it but the meetings didn't descend into chaos so I took that to be positive. In meetings (and I think I've mentioned this before) I prefer to sit back and think about things before contributing to the discussion rather than lead the discussion. This isn't an option obviously if you're chairing a group. But that isn't what being a chair is all about - it is about letting others contribute, recording the discussion, acting on suggestions and keeping the meetings under control to get to some sort of conclusion. I'd like to think that I did all of these things but it might be better to ask one of the team members. Subsequently after last year's task and finish group, I have attended a course on chairing meetings. I'm going to pull out those notes and have another look at them - perhaps this will help identify how I could change my behaviour to promote more discussion.

Back to the T&F group - we did come up with a series of recommendations including ones that could be implemented during the summer and some which could be implemented over the term and those that required further examination. From this point of view, I believe that we presented a well-rounded overview on loan entitlements. The fear I felt initially was unfounded. I should have realised that any recommendations had to go through two further groups including senior management so there was no possibility of crazy suggestions getting through. They would have been stopped in their tracks before any changes were made. I need to remember this for future T&F groups.

This year, I am chairing 3 T&F groups. The time-frames for completion feel short and pressurised. I will need to plan carefully in order to get meetings organised and leave enough time for the building blocks to be completed in each group. Last year, we started to use a project management framework for one of the other T&F groups that was also going on but it didn't work very well in that instance. I wonder whether something like that might keep me on track. I also think that a period of reflection after each T&F group has ended will prepare me for future groups.

As part of my CILIP Chartership, I had a complete a portfolio but alot of this was based round reflective writing. Currently I am looking at revalidating my chartership status and again this is based on reflective writing. The whole process of writing and thinking reflectively about your work is integral to so many things we do in the library landscape. It is a tool that we need to be aware of and get to grips with. Building it into the cycle of meetings, activities or T&F groups will help develop this skill making it second nature.