AGC #003 - 6 reflection frameworks I keep returning to

One of the world’s most powerful skills is reflection - but most of us are too lazy to do it.

Every book or guide about elite team cultures has its own riff on how they use reflection. Whether it’s the Navy Seals’ famous after-action reviews (AARs) or Pixar’s excruciating BrainTrust meetings, high-performing teams are regularly interrogating what works and what doesn’t in their environments.

Taking time to look back at how a meeting, practice or activity went is low-hanging fruit that will undoubtedly move your program forward. I know, because I’ve spent years trying to learn this myself and make it a habit.

But my loss is your gain.

Here are six simple frameworks for reflection that will get you started:

1. Stay / Start / Stop

This was introduced to me as “start/stop/continue” by the ever-inspiring Craig Parnham of USA Field Hockey, but I tweaked it to become “stay/start/stop” because I’m a sucker for alliteration.

I enjoy that the language of it is solution-oriented, comes in a list format, and is and aimed at productivity, while also prompting a confrontation of both strengths and weaknesses.

• Things to stay doing

• Things to start doing

• Things to stop doing

2. Good, Better, Next

In full transparency, I made this one up myself. But I have used versions of it for years to quickly analyze how practice went, as it provides three quick, broad questions to answer with an eye on the future.

• What went well?

• What would have made it better?

• What do we need to do next time?

3. Growth & Gap

The shortest, but arguably most effective of the frameworks here for helping your players understand what’s holding them back from reaching their full potential. Best used when answered by the coach and player separately, to see where commonalities and tensions might lie.

• How did you grow?

• Where is there still a gap?

4. ABC: Adversity-Beliefs-Consequences

Famously used in cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a form of psychological treatment used for a variety of mental health issues.

The ABC framework is really useful for helping someone struggling with “thinking errors” that cause undesirable outcomes as a result of controllable responses to life’s challenging moments. I’ve used it as a prompt to help numerous players work through performance-related issues and anxieties. The ABC framework has a couple of iterations, but here’s the one I’ve settled on.

• What adversity did you face?

• What were your beliefs about it?

  • Were these rational or irrational?

• What were the consequences?

  • What emotions were felt as a result?

  • What behaviors happened as a result?

5. What Times Five

Jack Rolfe at The Coaching Lab creates a series of awesome cards for a variety of purposes. The five what’s below are my favorites from the Changing The Game reflection cards, especially when used in combination to help a player break down a practice or game.

• When were you at your best today, and which key ingredients enabled this?

• What moment would you replay to make a different decision?

• What was the most surprising moment of today?

• What has got you thinking? What are you curious about?

• What do you want to remember about today?

6. Triangle-Square-Circle

A little creative license is used here to use shapes as inspirations for reflection on a presentation, concept, or idea.

This works well for pen-and-paper analysis, especially for younger players if you prompt them to draw the shapes to add a visual, but the questions can work for all ages and stages.

• What are the three most important points?

  • (Draw a triangle and put the three answers at the ‘pointy’ ends of it)

• What’s something that squares (aligns) with your thinking?

  • (Draw a square and write the answer inside it)

• What is still circling in your head, and what questions do you have about it?

  • (Draw a circle and write the answer inside it)