Reflection: The Key to Transformational Learning

“We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience.” These words, attributed to John Dewey, the “father of modern education,” describe a key aspect of our work here at Ei.

Think about it—how do you learn? Often, your most profound insights emerge not just from the experience itself but through the reflection you have afterward. Reflection allows you to make sense of what happened, reconsider your perspectives, and strategize for the future. I’ll bet that right now, thousands of Olympic athletes are reflecting on their recent performances to propel themselves further in their next competition. You and I can do the same–leverage reflection to advance our goals.

Enhancing Reflection with Project Post-Mortems

We embed reflective moments into all of Ei’s learning experiences, whether it's a two-hour workshop or a six-month cohort program. And recently, the team and I took this practice a step further. We partnered with a fast-growing company to implement a series of cross-departmental project debriefs to help them learn from what’s working and what’s not as they scale. In an environment where projects are complex and demand flexibility, we facilitated this process to help their teams pause and critically evaluate their work in order to continuously improve.

We structure our project post-mortems with a three-step process: RAI. Because projects are complex, the Project Post-Mortem framework is intentionally simple:

Project Post-Mortem Framework

1. Reflect – What happened? What did you learn? (Each person reflects individually. Focus on lessons and facts, avoiding blame or lengthy retellings.)
2. Analyze – Why does this lesson matter? Why is it important for your team/company? (Share individual reflections with the group. Identify trends and patterns.)
3. Improve – What will you do differently next time? What improvements should we experiment with on our next project? (Determine up to three improvements to test in an upcoming project.)

This framework can be applied to multiple projects or a single project, alone or with your team. It’s versatile, so you can use it no matter the context. Here’s a quick example of how you can shift a lesson learned (Steps 1 & 2) to an improvement recommendation (Step 3):

Lesson: The only time our entire cross-departmental team met was for the project kick-off. All subsequent meetings were in smaller groups or pairs, which created miscommunication between team members.

Improvement: Schedule kick-off, mid-point, and final stretch all-team meetings at the launch of every new project to share status updates and discuss challenges.

Reflection Beyond Work

In April, I ran a half-marathon with my brother—our third together—and finally broke the 2-hour barrier.

I thought it would be my last for a while. Then I got the agenda for our upcoming family reunion: a race was on the schedule. I was still basking in the glow of breaking my personal best and knew I couldn’t lag behind our family run. So, I decided to use the RAI framework to create a new training plan.

Using a clear framework like RAI pushed me to ask deeper questions and plan my approach differently than I would have otherwise. For instance, this time, I’m adding yoga on my rest days to stretch, since last time I had an aching calf muscle for two full weeks post-race—no thanks!

So, whether you’re launching a new product, engaging with a new client, or tackling a personal project, how can you leverage past experiences to pave the way for future success? Simple: just reflect, analyze, and improve.

If you use RAI, I’d love to hear how it goes. Just send us an email at hello@expinstitue.com!

PS: We're trying to bring Leaps back to the SXSW stage in 2025, and we need your help! Can you vote for our PanelPicker session here before August 18th?