Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design TaskMichael PrillaInformation and Technology Management, Ruhr University of Bochum

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Reflection: Missing piece in organisational learning

▪ Necessary practice at work (Schön, 1983)▪ Enabling groups to create insights beyond individual capabilities

(Hoyrup, 2004; Mercer & Wegerif, 1999)▪ Support for single and double loop learning (Greenwood, 1998)▪ Bottom-up work redesign (Prilla et al., 2013)

BUT

▪ Basis for reflection often forgotten, not followed up▪ Reflection not implied, often omitted in favour of primary work

tasks

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Reflection: Transforming experiences into learning

Behavior

Ideas

Feelings

Returning to experience

Attending to feelings

Re-evaluating experience

New perspectives

Change in behavior

Readiness for application

Commitment to action

Experience(s)Reflective

process Outcomes

Articulating, sharing(similar) experience(s)

Articulating, sharinginsights / outcomesShared perspectives,shared understanding

Coordinating and embedding group processes of reflection into work

Critical / counterfactual thinking

Inference, abstraction

Boud (1985)

Collaborative Reflection: Sharing, Communication

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

A Collaborative Reflection Support BlueprintArticulation and Essential Steps (Prilla, Degeling and Herrmann 2012)

support for documentation / data

from work

support for individual reflection

support for collaborative reflection

support for sustaining

results

work

articulation

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

A Collaborative Reflection Support BlueprintArticulation and Essential Steps (Prilla, Degeling and Herrmann 2012)

support for documentation / data

from work

support for individual reflection

support for collaborative reflection

support for sustaining

results

work

use documented experience

share experienceswith many others, document insights

document and share outcomes

plan / implement change

articulation

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

The TalkReflection App for Collaborative Reflection

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Sharing and communicating in contextReferring to experiences

Experience Report

Comment

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

The Studies

Study 1 and 3: Hospital, Stroke Unit▪ Assistant physicians and senior physician▪ Good education, medium technology usage

Study 2: Care Home, Dementia Care▪ Caregivers with low education ▪ Low technology exposure

Conversation as a burden▪ Emotional stress vs. acting professionally

Learning about conversations▪ Not well covered in formal training, experience as major prerequisite

User and Group Behavior in Computer Support for Collaborative Reflection in Practice: An Explorative Data Analysis

User and Group Behavior in Computer Support for Collaborative Reflection in Practice: An Explorative Data Analysis

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Usage figures

▪ Little use of comments (studies 1 and 2): ▪ Time constraints: “You do not go to the app because you have

a comment, but because you have an issue to write down” ▪ No guidance: “didn’t know what to write in the comment”

▪ Better integration and guidance in study 3

Type / Study Study 1 Study 2 Study 3

Duration (days) 12 33 49Users 5 6 6 (7)Documented conversations 7 18 21Documented results 3 2 3Comments (own/others) 9 14 (11/3) 45(32/13)

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Ways of using the app

▪ Memory aid for synchronous reflection▪ Description of experience,

outcome (if at all)▪ Feeding shared descriptions into

meetings, f2f encounters

▪ Vehicle for reflection (asynchronous reflection cycle)▪ Comments on shared

experiences

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Using the Talk Reflection App: Memory aidDocumenting experiences, discussing f2f

Type Articulation

Documented Conversation

„The resident passed away suddenly, had been here long, was liked by all staff. Was ill in the morning and admitted her to hospital, Unfortunately she passed away [there]. This was very distressing to the staff as they felt it would have been more dignified for the client to be in familiar surrounding.“

Comments -

Documented results

„After discussing with the homes manager about the staff being upset, it was decided that staff who were most affected get together and discuss thoughts and feelings.“

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Using the Talk Reflection App: Vehicle Reflecting in the tool

Type Articulation

Documented Conversation

“[Patient’s] therapy finished. Again relapse, palliative therapy. Prepared [relatives] for begin of home care, asked to seek professional support for care. Talk was very difficult, parts were not received or blocked out.”

Own Comment “[Relative] conveys the feeling it is our fault. (…) Hears for the first time that [patient] is going to die”

Comment by others

“[From my experience] especially in the first talk it is important to take some time”

Result “Problem: Conversation held alone. It should be known that a senior physician can be asked for support”

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

User RolesExample: Study 3, Hospital

Action U1 U2 U3 U4 U5 U6 A SumLog In 17 21 8 5 16 32 2 101View Doc 21 33 12 14 20 45 1 146Comment 7 5 12 3 3 13 2 45Create Doc 2 1 1 4 7 6 0 21

▪ Reflection participants: Balanced activity▪ Commenters (“I commented where I thought it was

necessary”)▪ Documenters (“I documented what I thought was interesting

for others”)

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

The impact of group size and composition: Reflection communities

▪ Small groups with few users being active▪ Value added decreases▪ Role separation causes low activity in small groups

▪ Co-located groups▪ Culture of communication ▪ “I already knew most of the cases documented by my

colleagues”

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

The need for socio-technical design of collaborative reflection support

▪ Usage: Potential for improvement▪ Potential for sharing and commenting not

tapped fully▪ Hardly any documentation of insights▪ But: Impact on reflection in the group (face-to-face)

▪ Needs: Closer integration into socio-technical context (processes, culture and tasks)

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

An example of socio-technical integration: Prompting

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

An example of socio-technical integration: Prompting

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Socio-technical support for collaborative reflection: A model

support for documenting / capturing data

support for individual reflection

support for collaborative

reflection

support for sustaining

results

work

individual reflection

collaborative reflection

createresults / change

Collaborative Reflection Support at Work: A Socio-Technical Design Task

Current work and findings

▪ Prompting: Weak effects on number of comments in experimental setting ▪ Varying effects for different prompts

▪ Findings underpinned by additional studies and analysis ▪ Comparison of four cases: care, hospital, public

administration (Prilla, 2014)▪ Content analysis on outcomes (Prilla and Renner, 2014)

Reflection for job counsellors: EmployIDhttp://employid.eu

User and Group Behavior in Computer Support for Collaborative Reflection in Practice: An Explorative Data Analysis

Thanks for your attention. Questions?

Michael Prilla michael.prilla@rub.de www.imtm-iaw.rub.de, www.mirror-project.eu

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