Purplemoon Monthly Musing

Posted 27th August 2025

Collaboration, what's in it for me? - a Purplemoon Monthly Musing

Welcome to Purplemoon Monthly Musings.

On the final Wednesday of every month Jenny will be posting out about a theme that has been appearing in her work, or her life, across all sectors. It could be a topic that particularly resonates with you, or it might be a new concept or idea to you. Either way the aim is to give voice to some thoughts, ponder some questions and explore what this might mean to us as individuals and as a community. Jenny will always aim to credit original sources as she explores the musings title and will welcome your comments and contributions to keep the musing going! This blog is also published on LinkedIn. Follow Jenny here.

Definition: ‘the action of working with someone to produce something’

This month the musing is considering collaboration. Something that I have always considered a good thing. As someone naturally relational, the idea of collaborating with others has always been something I am drawn to. Good old fashioned ‘group work’.

However, sometimes collaboration doesn’t quite feel right, it may be that you thought the aim was collaboration, but in fact it was someone ‘telling you’ what to do or how to do it, or the other end of that spectrum, it felt like you were doing all the input and sharing all your knowledge and ideas, which the other then took. Or the key factor that you thought was at the heart of your collaboration is not what it seemed to be for others.

Collaboration can also fall down when you are collaborating with someone who is a mirror of you, that has the same strengths, experiences or knowledge base. Here you might have a really nice conversation, but the output is not quite as creative or boundary pushing as you had hoped, or the discipline of the meeting disappeared as you both conversed and went of on tangents as you are having a ‘catch up’.

So what does powerful and effective collaboration need? How can you discern it from a jolly old catch up, from information sharing or from a networking meeting? I believe it needs these five factors below:

People with different knowledge, experience and/or opinions
An aim for an end product/service/item
A willingness to give and take (all your ideas might be good ideas, but not all can be utilised)
A structure (or agreement) for moving forward, with each person willing to be responsible for something
Time frames

What is not listed here is an agenda, as collaboration does not have to be planned and structured; spontaneous collaboration can be unexpected, productive and fun! However, for the collaboration to have a final product/service/agreement then subsequent meetings would benefit from an agenda.

For collaboration to truly succeed, it’s essential to establish a shared understanding of what success looks like. How will you, as a group or pair, know when you’ve achieved your goal? Clear, agreed-upon success criteria provide direction and help measure progress.

But success isn’t just collective, it’s also personal. Each individual brings their own internal criteria, shaped by personal motivations and needs. These may include a desire for recognition, a sense of fulfilment, or tangible rewards. Acknowledging these personal drivers isn’t selfish, it’s human. When these needs go unnamed or unmet, frustration and misalignment can arise.

That’s why effective collaboration must include space for individual success. Make it a priority to understand and validate what each person hopes to gain. By doing so, you will have an inclusive, motivated, and harmonious team dynamic.

As those of us in education move into a new academic year, may you have many happy collaborations, and for those of you entering the last third of the year, may it be a productive and collaborative third.

Purplemoon Monthly Musing

Posted 30th April 2025

Reflecting on Reflective Practise- a Purplemoon Monthly Musing

Welcome to Purplemoon Monthly Musings.

I’m diving into a topic close to my heart—reflection.
But is reflection always a good thing?

You might assume that, as a supervisor and coach, I’m automatically pro-reflection. The short answer, as my short answers often go, is: it depends.

So, what does it depend on?

When reflection is happening
Where it’s taking place
How it’s being done
What the goal of the reflection is
Which method or “vehicle” is being used

The Lens we use matters

When I am in session with clients, I often notice a tendency to reflect utilising a critical lens. They are analysing what went wrong, what they “should have” done, and how to avoid mistakes in the future. While this can be useful, it often leads to rumination and self-criticism.

Instead, I invite clients to try a self-compassionate lens. What were the positives, even in a difficult situation? Can we accept that the outcome was shaped by context and circumstances? Can we consider what the emotions and energy were in that space, and from that accept how the outcome occurred? From there, we can explore what might be possible next time, and how to bring that about. This shift is often empowering.

Timings matter

Now let’s consider when reflection occurs. I find it interesting that for many people in situations that pose challenge or conflict the desire is to only have a reflection immediately after. For example, in a school where a child has become very dysregulated and the situation has spiralled into someone becoming hurt. Or in a role where a member of the community has become extremely abusive because they feel they are not being treated the way they should be treated.

A debrief and check in is vital, in the immediacy of the incident, to ensure that everyone knows they are safe and if there is any key learning or follow up (possibly with other agencies or organisations) that needs to be put in place straight away. However, that is one type of reflection and is very narrow in focus. Who is leading that debrief/check in needs to be considered, are they someone with no emotional impact from the situation? Or if they were involved, what lens are they using, and what emotions and thoughts are they bringing into the space?

Productive and beneficial reflection will occur if there is time between this debrief and the reflection. Maybe 3-5 days. This reflection can be held in a group or with individuals and can indeed be done by a lone individual for themselves. For this reflection to be productive it is not a rerun of the debrief, it is considering what came out of the debrief, and has any thinking evolved? Have thoughts and feelings changed? Are there now things that can be explored about what preceded the situation, what followed the situation, as well as the situation itself? As time has given distance from it, there is the potential for greater depth to the reflection. Were there any successful strategies, any helpful help? Were the actions that came out of the debrief followed up? successful? Do different actions need to occur? Reflecting on reflection is deeply powerful when framed well.

Reflection as a regular practise, that takes practice

Reflection doesn’t need to be reserved for difficult moments. At the end of the week, reflecting on what you thought on Monday about Monday may give you something to consider about how you enter the next week, or give you a nudge to check in with someone or about something. It might help you understand why Tuesday and Wednesday went the way they did!. Going back over notes you made at a meeting or an event a month later, or even a year later, can spark a change in thinking for today and tomorrow.

Reflecting isnt something you can just do, for it to be productive and beneficial you need to give it time and energy. You need to learn what methodology is best for you, and you need to understand why it is occurring in the first place.

I am an advocate for the supervision and/or coaching space to enable and empower reflective thinking, but I am also aware this is not the only way to do it. Indeed, it is not the only place I utilise reflective thought. I do love a good walk, allowing reflective thinking to germinate and grow out of my subconscious as I do so, then putting in under an imaginary microscope and considering what it might mean for me, and for those I work with.

For my journaling advocates out there, let me ask you this, do you go back and reflect on what is written? How many times and when? What do you do with these reflections? For the readers of many non-fiction books, how do you reflect on what you have read, when and how?

Reflection