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


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


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


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

support for documentation / data

from work


support for collaborative reflection


results

work

use documented experience

share experienceswith many others, document insights

document and share outcomes

plan / implement change

articulation


The TalkReflection App for Collaborative Reflection


Sharing and communicating in contextReferring to experiences

Experience Report

Comment


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



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)


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


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.“


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”


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”)


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”


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)


An example of socio-technical integration: Prompting


An example of socio-technical integration: Prompting


Socio-technical support for collaborative reflection: A model

support for documenting / capturing data


support for collaborative

reflection


results

work

individual reflection

collaborative reflection

createresults / change


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


Thanks for your attention. Questions?

Michael Prilla [email protected] www.imtm-iaw.rub.de, www.mirror-project.eu

michael.prillaimtmmirrorip

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

Self Improvement

talk reflection app

work articulation

group processes of reflection

computer support

professional support

work schn

work redesign prilla

documented experience