Do you think about the things that go wrong in your life? Do you make corrections to it? Do you think of what went wrong and plan to change it in the future? This is a way of reflecting on past events where some rectification of actions is needed to be made to avoid something unpleasant repeating in the future or to make improvements to some aspect in life. This is known as Gibbs' Reflective Cycle.
It is an easy way of understanding and improving something in life or yourself. In this blog, we are going to look at how it can be practised and how it affects our lives.
Gibbs' Reflective method is a structured method of analyzing past experiences and understanding them better in a systematic way. It was developed by Professor Graham Gibbs at Oxford Brookes University, known as Oxford Polytechnic then, in 1988. It was developed to help individuals to understand themselves or a situation that happened and to make corrections to it for the future. There are six stages in this cycle, all of which have to be completed to have an effective outcome in the end.
Professor Graham Gibbs realized that reflection is a good way of improving any aspect of life. He developed a way of reflecting on past experiences and improving them, and named the model “Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle”. His method focuses on reflection by analyzing the experiences, making relevant changes to them, and avoiding repeating the same situations in the future.
This method helps understand emotions, actions, and their consequences by observing and analyzing feelings about experiences as they happen and evaluating the actions. Followed by making plans to improve outcomes if the same experience is faced again.
It consists of 6 stages, which include questions that break down each stage and help understand them. At the end of this, a person has a better understanding of where they went wrong and what they did right, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses. This method is observed neutrally by being unbiased about the whole situation.
It also focuses on the positive aspects of an incident. This technique can also be used for positive experiences to recognize the positive outcomes and to either carry on with the actions that were taken or to improve them for much better outcomes.
To better understand the events or actions, this model is divided into 6 stages. Each stage has questions that guide an individual through their journey of understanding the events, actions, and their consequences to make improvements.These stages are the following:
Let’s examine each stage in depth.
In the first stage, which is description, you explain the event or the experience in depth. The following questions assist in understanding how to describe a situation.
Suppose you need to reflect on a group project.
The description stage helps us understand the next steps involved in the model.
The second stage, feelings, involves analysing the emotions that were involved during the experience or event. They could be negative or positive emotions. This helps an individual better understand the emotional reaction to circumstances.
The questions below will elaborate on how to describe the feelings stage.
In a project meeting with class fellows, you became defensive when your classmates asked questions about your method of proceeding with the project. You felt worried.
After the meeting ended, you realized that they were asking questions to understand the project better, but you felt they were doubting your method.
This shift in the understanding of the situation is the important step in reflecting in Gibbs' Reflective Cycle.
This stage involves evaluating the positive and negative aspects of the incident. The following questions will help you understand this part of the experience.
Example
Suppose the project you were working on ended with good results. You delivered according to the planning meeting the client's expectations. But you still think that you could have done better in communicating with your team members and your instructor. You were not able to communicate on time, which resulted in making changes at the last minute.
The evaluation stage draws attention to the weak points you experienced during the incident, which is improvement in communication, to avoid rushing nd stressing at the last minute in the future.
In the analysis stage of Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle, we look at things with a deeper perspective. In this phase, we focus on why the incident happened.
Example
You and the team members had divergent opinions on the project's results, which led to a disagreement during its development. The crew experienced a misunderstanding as a result of this misinterpretation. You need to look for solutions to avoid the same problem in the future. You can use different communication theories. For example, the transactional model focuses on two-way dialogues between individuals. It helps avoid miscommunication in the future between you and the team members
For better progress of the project, use a proper decision-making model for discussions on it in time to come so that every team member's understanding and expectations can be conveyed in a structured way. So that everyone can see other team members' expectations and the roles that they play in the project.
This stage helps understand how to resolve issues. It shows how employing different models and frameworks elevates conflicts among team members.
The conclusion stage helps better understand the lessons learned from the incidents and the improvements that were needed. It helps develop plans to avoid the same experience from happening in the future.
The following questions help in understanding this part.
Example
In the conclusion stage, you realize that there were last-minute tasks due to miscommunication among the team members.
You found these solutions:
This final stage focuses on developing an action plan for the areas that require improvement. This action plan helps to avoid any difficulties in the future and makes things smoother and easier.
The questions below help develop an action plan.
Based on the experience you had, which was miscommunication with the team members, you adopted an action plan to stay away from experiencing the same thing again in the future.
The first thing you do is develop a communication standard to clearly communicate the project goals and the role every team member will play in it.
Secondly, to better understand the project, its progress, and its goals, take up team meet-ups to discuss the goals and the progress made by each team member. This way, everyone involved in the project will understand their own role in the team and also other team members'.
Now that we know what Gibbs' Reflective Cycle is, we are going to look at its applications in different professions and areas of life.
In education, Gibbs' Reflective Cycle helps students learn from their learning experiences and improve their academic achievement.
Educators can use this technique to improve their teaching methods.In healthcare, this technique helps nurses and other healthcare professionals improve their health services and methods and improve patient care.
Employees can use Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle to boost their career performance and expand their skills. They can reflect on their past experiences at their job to understand their strengths and weaknesses. This helps them in their career growth.
Gibbs’ Reflective Model helps business managers reflect on their decisions and improve their decision-making. It is of good assistance for team members. They can pinpoint areas for improvement and create plans for managing teams.
This technique is of immense benefit to every individual who wants to improve in any area of their life.
To be able to implement Gibbs' reflective cycle, here are some useful tips to consider.
It is a technique by which an individual makes their personal and professional life better by analyzing their past experiences. It involves making plans to improve your experiences in the future, followed by taking the required actions.
Gibbs’ reflective method is used in various fields such as healthcare, education, leadership in workplaces, project management, and personal development.
There are six stages in this technique, and all of the stages need to be followed to have effective outcomes
It does not include input from other individuals involved in the same experience. It does not take into consideration any assumptions you might have about the experience and the need to examine it from different points of view.
It helps to learn from past experiences, analyze emotions and actions, and improve them in the future. It offers a systematic way of preparing plans for the future to avoid negative experiences occurring repeatedly.
Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle is helpful in all aspects of life. It provides a systematic way of analyzing feelings and actions involved in an event that occurred so that an individual can avoid negative outcomes in the future and carry on with the positive ones. Through this method, you can improve your personal and professional life by analyzing your feelings and actions, finding your strengths and weaknesses, and making plans for better outcomes in the future.
Following all the stages gives positive results and makes way for positive changes. You can navigate through the obstacles and aim for higher achievements in your personal and professional life.
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