Do you know the price of an avocado? A single fruit can range anywhere between Rs. 250-500. Not so widely popular as a fruit yet it is an ingredient serving the hungry consumer.

It is not sophisticated enough that these face washes have edible ingredients, it gets another posh layer with the label, ‘organic’. Skincare products with expensive, exotic, empirical personalities!

This kind of variety is not only reflected in the skincare range but also in food. Try buying a natural peanut butter box or a healthy protein bar or breakfast cereals and the variety will leave you either crazy or confused. Each product description seems to be competing with another one. Not just skincare or food or fashion, this woke-age consumerism, where consumers are social and environmentally conscious drive a different shelf order on the retail stores.

But today’s story is not about the new range of skincare, these are just reflections of consumer behavior. Today’s piece is about reflection, a reflection of events and behavior in and around us.

Reflection is an important step in the thinking process. As we roll out the first edition of the last month of December, the month of reviews and reflections, in today’s Habits for Thinking, I want to draw your attention to something that is simple, yet not frequently practiced and that is to practice reflective thinking consciously, methodically and timely.

How do we gain wisdom: “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.”

Confucius

The great philosopher, psychologist, and education reformer John Dewey, author How We Think, examines what separates thinking, a basic human faculty we take for granted, from thinking well, what it takes to train ourselves into mastering the art of thinking, and how we can channel our natural curiosity in a productive way when confronted with an overflow of information. He writes:

Reflection involves not simply a sequence of ideas, but a consequence — a consecutive ordering in such a way that each determines the next as its proper outcome, while each, in turn, leans back on its predecessors. The successive portions of the reflective thought grow out of one another and support one another; they do not come and go in a medley. Each phase is a step from something to something — technically speaking, it is a term of thought. Each term leaves a deposit that is utilized in the next term. The stream or flow becomes a train, chain, or thread.

Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman, author of the iconic book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, has explained thinking and decision making. He describes the functioning of the brain in two systems:

System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.

System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration.

The system 1 mind is a reflexive mind that reacts without considered thought while the system 2 mind is a reflective mind that takes time to react.

Both, Kahenman and Dewey, throw light on reflective thinking.

Dewey defines reflective thought as our single most potent antidote to erroneous beliefs:

Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends, constitutes reflective thought… It is a conscious and voluntary effort to establish belief upon a firm basis of reasons.

Reflective thinking is the deliberate practice of going through learnings. Reflective thinking can be practiced both as an individual and as a team.

Being a reflective thinker by analyzing and revisiting your experiences and decisions enhances critical thinking skills. For instance, spending time before taking a big, irreversible decision is reflective thinking where one goes through the pillars of decision and challenges beliefs around it. Learning from mistakes is reflective too as so is learning from new learnings. The world moved inside homes as workplaces and as it comes back to offices, the learning from WFH can be added to the new workplace regulations. This reflection will help bring new ideas to working environments.

Reflections can be done with the teams. These can be about good and bad decisions, processes, and trends, both related and unrelated to the business. Take the case of the facewash trend. It throws light on some more learnings like:

The rise of direct-to-consumer brands is due to digital growth. Businesses need not wait for months to establish a distribution network to reach brands. It can be done almost immediately through e-commerce channels.

A conscious consumer is showing awareness of ingredients and aversion towards chemical products.

Irrespective of price points, the packaging is all glitz and glamour. One cannot judge the price by seeing the packaging.

There can be many more learnings that can come through reflecting on these trends. It is a generic example and these learnings can impact our thinking in other decision-making irrespective of the business category. Learning about reflective thinking from trends in facewash is like washing one’s face and looking up in the mirror at the freshly cleaned glowing reflection.

Reflective thinking develops higher-order thinking skills by applying new knowledge to prior understanding. Enhancing thinking expertise is like a glowing face after a good wash!

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