Spiral Reflection

Example

Ariane is a management assistant at a professional university and continually confronted with the tense working relationship between two of her colleagues.

Example

Ariane works as a management assistant at a professional university. She describes the following situation.

The permanent member of the staff office returned from maternity leave four months ago. This staff member set up the staff office three years before and sees it as her 'business'. A temporary worker was taken on to cover for the maternity leave. Because of expansion, the contract with the temporary worker has been extended for a year. The temporary worker does her work well but is continually being put down by the permanent staff member, who is very result-oriented but lacks social skills.
Trigger: The temporary worker continually comes and cries on the shoulder of the management assistant, who indicates that she is getting fed up with this.
Question: How should I meet the needs of the temporary worker? (step 1)

Filling in the form about herself: what did I want, what did I feel, what did I think and what did I do is no problem for Ariane. Filling in the form from the point-of-view of the temporary worker is very difficult for her. For 'and what did the person involved think?' she really can't think of anything. (step 2)

By making a connection between the two parties, she obtains the insight that crying gives temporary relief but that the problem continues to exist. Moreover they are not the only two hoping for a solution. She comes to realise that no-one within the organisation sees it as their responsibility to address this problem and find a solution for it. (step 3)

She decides to make an appointment with the head of the staff office the very next day. (step 4)