Abstract

Within all structures of work and learning, there is space where issues emerge and fractures can develop; Jess Cobb and Madeleine Hook from CSM Library discuss how taking a facilitated reflection approach enabled them to turn one such situation into an opportunity to build a stronger sense of solidarity and community within their team. They will share the rationale for their approach as well as how they believe this could be adapted to support reflections with and by student groups to collect honest feedback.

Session and activities

After a less-than-ideal set of responses from the staff survey, the team we work within was in a strained position: lack of clarity about decisions, a feeling of distance from management structures, and feeling as though concerns were not being heard. By taking this set of circumstances, we developed a facilitated reflection approach that then enabled us to support our colleagues in navigating difficult feelings in a cooperative manner, while still existing within the team structure.

While we’ll be talking about the topic of facilitating reflection in the context of this case study, we want to make time to discuss how these feelings can emerge and what can be done to support an entire team at giving true and meaningful reflections. We will show the full process – how we identified needs within the team, addressed concerns about anonymity and transparency, and how we put the power into the group for the feedback they wanted to be heard.

We want to use this instance as a space to share the process and outcomes of the project, that while set within an academic library team can be applied to other staff teams but also to students completing group projects. Within this project, we looked outside of our knowledge bases and comforts to discover the best way to hold productive and inclusive conversations; by sharing this project, we hope those outside of libraries can see the clear takeaways they can apply to their position within their staff teams or within a course structure.