Virtual Pause & Reflects: Fun and Productive Reflection Activities from IDEAL
By: Jenny Haddle, Program Learning & Adaptive Management Senior Advisor, IDEAL; and Meredith Brown, Adaptive Management Specialist, IDEAL
As described in previous IDEAL blogs, Pause and Reflect (P&R) is fundamental to collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA), and, as a tool, is helpful for reflective processes that can improve programming and development outcomes. But are P&Rs flexible? Is there a standard approach for conducting regular P&R sessions? The answer is, no! Pause and Reflect is one of the easiest tenets of CLA to adapt and incorporate throughout your activity or program. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all model for frequency or length, and as with all things, it should fit the context and timeline of your activity and be designed to fit your needs, depending on where you are in the program cycle.
When the IDEAL activity started, P&Rs were not a priority, but as silos formed between technical teams, IDEAL leadership recognized a need for teams to better understand activities outside their technical scope and collaborate with each other to capitalize on synergies across activities. In the beginning, the CLA team facilitated quarterly two-day, two-hour P&R sessions with the first day (or the first two-hour session) focused on reflection and the second day focused on planning.
The first year of P&Rs allowed the team at large to get used to them and to gain a better understanding of CLA and the learning process. Based on the evolving needs of the activity, IDEAL changed to quarterly, two-hour P&R sessions with corresponding monthly sessions during prescheduled all-staff meetings. The monthly P&Rs created quick and easy touch points for smaller activity adaptations. Eventually, the teams and program were running efficiently, and IDEAL was entering the last phase of its program cycle, so there was no longer a need for both monthly and quarterly P&Rs. In response, the CLA team simplified to only quarterly P&Rs featuring themes aligned with the needs of the program cycle. Sometimes when a team is busy and pulled in many directions, it’s best to reduce and simplify staff meetings, making them as efficient and productive as possible. No need to hold a meeting for the sake of a meeting!
Besides the success of adapting the frequency and length of each P&R session, IDEAL experimented with a multitude of facilitation techniques and reflection activities over the years. With a large team spread around the country and globe, the need for structure and fun in a virtual environment was high. Over the years, through utilizing Miro, AhaSlides, Mentimeter, and other platforms, the IDEAL CLA team created engaging and productive sessions. After every session, the CLA team provided a survey to gather feedback on what worked and what didn’t, and you guessed it, adapted accordingly. Some of the most loved facilitation techniques and reflection activities from over the years include:
Newspaper Front Page: Breaking into randomized groups, each group reviewed sections of the Annual Survey Results to create a front page of a newspaper creating headlines and considering adaptations. This activity allows for a collaborative analysis of annual survey quantitative and qualitative results and sparks discussion that can lead to program adaptations and activity improvements.
Kudos Icebreaker: Setting aside reflection time to note something everyone appreciated about one or more colleagues or teams. This activity is a light-hearted, fun way to acknowledge the efforts of team members, connect team members, and increase psychological safety.
“1, 2, & 4, Get Your Success on the Floor”: Using the 1–2–4-All facilitation technique, randomize breakout groups reviewed successes to crown the top four. This activity is a great way for a team to celebrate and learn from successes as well as identify success stories for sharing publicly or with project stakeholders.
Collaboration After-Action Review (AAR): In randomized breakout groups, each group performed an AAR on IDEAL’s overall collaboration. This activity is an effective way to mix up teams and build cross-collaborative relationships while exploring ways to improve collaboration going forward.
Let’s Get Visual: Broken into technical teams, each team took some time to find visuals of how they felt about the upcoming year based on work planning. This was then repeated at the end of the year to see if those anticipated feelings aligned with how the year actually went. This activity helps voice stress around delivering results in a safe, fun way and gets the team thinking about how to approach upcoming challenges. The after-activity is a way to celebrate successes while also considering what challenges could have been addressed better.
Y4 Activity Review: Broken into technical teams, each team reviewed the activities planned for Y4 and categorized them by Accomplished, Will Be Accomplished, and Will Not Be Accomplished. The teams transferred accomplished activities to a new board (pictured below to the right) and answered guiding questions around the accomplishment, considering key actors engaged and the impact of the activity. This helped each team to celebrate accomplishments and prepare for annual reporting.
Check out additional blogs about Pause & Reflect:
