Reflective Practice

The Power of Self-Development.

What could personal development do for you?

Published 31st March 2025

Estimated Read Time: 14 minutes

Reflective & Reflexive Practice?1

Let's get familiar with the terms first 🧠

"Reflexive practice enhances our understanding of CPD by focusing on the internal subjective processes of perception and judgment rather than soley the physical experience. It enables practitioners to adapt their thinking and act with greater integrity. "

By Mary Hartog2

Career Development

Start with the basics. Tying the Bloom's Taxonomy model3 into your progression can support your continuous personal development too. When you are able to first, remember and understand your every experience... you will be able to apply, analyse and evaluate to create a better output every, single, time.

Start by remembering what you have learned every day - try a personal journal!

Keep reading for my template😋

Blog 004:

My Journey

Over the past 4 years I have worked towards my bachelor’s degree in business and human resource management and my associate level CIPD qualification.

If you don’t know the CIPD Profession Map4 yet, let me introduce you and show you how I used this to support my own personal development!

Here it is... 😆

https://www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/comms/the-people-profession/profession-map-pdfs/profession-map-one-page-overview-november-2023.pdf4

There are 3 core values that surround this map... let me break them down for you in terms of my own development:

Principles-led – going above and beyond policy/process to do what's right !

Doing what is right is so important in HR. For me, I have developed the confidence to challenge and push back on concepts to ensure fairness, equality and consistency. If nobody challenges concepts change is difficult and without change we can't evolve and improve5.

This core value means doing the right thing and keeping the people at the heart of everything. It's important to act with integrity and be accountable for decisions, leading by example in following policy and process6.

University has equipped me with emotional intelligence, the ability to build meaningful relationships by leveraging my interpersonal skills and working through group projects with a team mindset. Individual strengths will differ from one person to the next, so understanding this and using this to work together can create a much better output7.

HR is a tricky field to get started in as you often need experience first. So, through my university degree I completed three months of voluntary work as a HR assistant. I encourage any person to be brave and begin their learning journey by volunteering and allowing themselves to make and learn from mistakes, remembering key areas for improvement8. Through this I was able to observe professionals and learn reflexively on the job.

Then, I got my first paid HR job!

🔓

Evidence-based – using a mix of evidence and expertise to make informed decisions !

There are so many grey areas within HR that make decisions surrounding a persons employment sensitive and difficult to navigate at times9 (Hey, this is why the experience part is so important). So, always rely on evidence. This core value really means just that, base every decision on facts, data and evidence to ensure fairness and reliability. A big no-no in HR is to rely on assumptions or personal intuition10.

In my third year of university I completed a placement year in the HR department of a distribution company, this was my first paid job in HR. Here, I gained more experience and more autonomy to make decisions and influence. So where does self development come into this? I used this year to be a sponge, soaking up as much understanding of the role as possible and keeping a journal of new learnings each week. Using this journal I was able to challenge myself on areas to improve, which for me was vastly confidence to engage and speak up in meetings.

Definition: Imposter syndrome : doubting ones own achievements and fearing oneself appears to be a fraud11.

By the end of this year, I presented a summary to the Global Leadership team, speaking confidently about my learning throughout the year, the challenges faced and how I overcame them using reflection. Overcoming the fear of public speaking is ongoing but a lot has progressed.

Being bold and breaking the norm through reflection and reflexivity can do so much for you inside and outside of work. Becoming a better you, challenging yourself and gaining more knowledge along the way is so important. As Steven Hawking once said "intelligence is the ability to adapt to change".12

🧽

Outcomes-driven – focusing on work that can create value for people and organisations!

See why continuous improvement and reflection is key? Another element in this trio focuses on outcome, being proactive and creating positive impact.

For me, I have developed understanding of UK employment law to support my ability to inform the company I work for on relevant changes and improvements for the workforce.

My method of exercising reflexivity: While carrying out an ER meeting, e.g. a request for Flexible Working, I would consider if this request has been asked for before by another employee, and whether this had been approved or declined. Reflecting on the job enables real-time fairness, consistency and continued improvement.

In this way value can be created for the employees as they trust policy will be followed for all consistently and every request will be reviewed fairly and taken seriously. This is so important to protect culture in the workplace13. People talk, you know?

Similarly during university, a team and I conducted a learning and development workshop. We repeatedly timed the contents of the delivery but when we delivered the session... we were overrunning on time. Reflexivity means reflecting in action, what can be done to improve NOW.

The action? A quick discussion while participants completed a group task deciding not to include our next planned activity.

The result? We improved the session in real-time using reflexivity. Using reflection, we know next time we could consider having checkpoints to measure timing.

This value is about continuous improvement and ensuring end-goals align to both employee and organisational values. This is always evolving, so we need constant evaluation and refinement of the desired outcome14.

Ultimately, driving positive outcomes for the people means a happy and engaged workforce15.

You've heard the term Happy Wife, Happy Life? Try, 'Happy Crew, Business Too'.

🤸

So now you want to try Reflective and Reflexive practice too?

Here are some models that I have used to support my professional development through practicing reflection on my learning.

*Clears throat*

Welcome to BGT! Formally known as Britain's Got Talent, now known as:

Best Growth Techniques - The Talent Show!

...where we’ll be judging the best models for personal and professional growth.

Up first:

Boud’s Triangular Representation16:

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=51386&section=417

My rating: 3/10

Sorry Boud, but this is a simple model. It demonstrates that to reflect on something is to learn something new. It summarises the essentials of reflective practice, but, it doesn't really tell us much about HOW to reflect and HOW to put the new learnings into practice next time18.

UP NEXT.

Kolb's Learning Cycle19 ('oOoo')

https://inspiring.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Kolbs-Learning-Cycle.png20

My rating: 6.5/10

You are great, maybe a little outdated and over-focused on reflection (where is the reflexion??) but you showed us how to experiment with our new learning and try again better next time.

Overall... I think learning is a little more complex than you make out in your original model, your model is quite linear and rigid.21 🤷

NEXXXTTTTT:

Gibb's Reflective Cycle22:

https://helendenheld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/gibbs-reflective-learning-cycle-1.png23

My rating: 7/10

Very similar to our last contestant with a focus on reflection. You want us to think about our feelings from our learnings too. You may help promote inclusivity as your model can help us to become aware of our knowledge limits and how our behaviour is influencing our practices within work24. For example, excluding individuals due to lack of awareness and deeper thought.

You definitely seem more holistic as far as our personal development is involved.

@TheHREdit, DEBRIEF...

I have greater hope for our next contestant, I'm looking for a model that can really take into consideration assumptions that we make about our experiences.

Atkins and Murphy's Cyclical model (1993)25:

https://ebrary.net/201210/business_finance/reflecting26

My rating: 9.5/10

This one resolves many criticisms of Gibb's model with a similar cyclical model that works to enable a deeper level of self-reflection whereby a person can probe into our own assumptions and even challenge these. Using this model we can question the relevance alongside reflection of the learning. Self-awareness is key 🔑

Finally, our runner up:

Argyris and Schön (1978) Reflexive Model27:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Single-and-double-loop-learning-Argyris-Schoen-1978_fig2_26423321928

My rating: 9.3/10

Your abstract, your complex, you understand our learning is multi-dimensional and you ask us to adapt on the job. Your downside is, there isn't much emphasis on the emotional side of reflection, and this factor can have such an impact on the learning we take from our experiences, we can't ignore it!29

*Curtains Close*

My Linked-In Journey:

Along the way I have learned that utilising your LinkedIn account is important. Building a personal brand not only supports networking and building relationships with work colleagues and recruiters, but it's a professional diary and a way to stay connected with other professionals, which could make you more successful professionally30.

I began my journey in 2024 when I started my placement year. LinkedIn helped me to track my professional development and keep a note of it, I use it like a diary. Posting reflective snapshots of my work and achievements, sharing gratitude for opportunities, and allowing future employers and recruiters to see and interact with this content. Both of my previous jobs have been achieved through conversations on LinkedIn!

Let's connect on LinkedIn:

My LinkedIn

Writing The HR Edit:

Personal! 🚨 Starting out writing TheHREdit my mind was BLANK. Sure, I have lots of thoughts that have accumulated over the years of study, but it is SO difficult to put thoughts into words in a way that makes the reader (you) enjoy the content and find the information useful. Frankly, I had never done it before, and that is OK. Infact, this is where reflective practice is key. Be vulnerable. Try and learn from experiences, improve with every blog post.

I have attached my Personal Reflection Journal Template below, I hope this inspires you all to try out reflective and reflexive practice and see where your journey takes you!

Try out my @TheHREdit Template:

💌 I made this template inspired by my own experience using Gibb's Reflective Cycle, including an element of Atkin and Murphy's Cyclical model to support a deeper level of personal reflection that Gibb's model arguably cannot offer31.

Try this yourself, be brave and challenge your own assumptions!

Why not share your learnings with us and tag @theHRedit on socials!

#thehredit #hardworkers

Thank you for reading Hard Workers, look out for more blogs coming very soon ...

In the meantime, why not check out my 'About Me' page 🥰