The Death of Reflection

I love my smartphone. It provides immediate information I need to run my busy life. But, there is a downside to constant connectivity for me and for society: the death of reflection.

Being hyper-connected—and agitated when not—means losing those precious moments when disparate ideas merge, when pleasant memories bring joy, and when pondering a problem leads to innovation. Accessing and using too much information all the time stifles reflection and all of its benefits.

Fitness, I believe, offers the solution of listening to one’s body, which is the antithesis of the quantified-self movement in which everything is tracked. When I run, I can feel last night’s overindulgence at dinner or, equally, last night’s eight hours of sleep. But all the devices to track where I am, my pace, or the comparison to my “friends” or my last run, distract me from the reflective process that often leads to great work after my run.

It’s not just when I run. It is all those moments waiting for an elevator or standing in line when I check my email, see if anyone has mentioned me on Twitter, or make my next “Words with Friends” move.

Letting one’s mind wander and reflecting on both one’s internal thoughts and feelings and the external world leads to great ideas—and by that I don’t mean just new and better devices.

A version of this will appear in a report on “Disappearing Futures” in the September-October FUTURIST. Thanks to Cynthia G. Wagner, Editor of the FUTURIST, and to Analicia Villanueva and Mike Gualtieri for their feedback.

Why a Private Person Goes Public: Jesica Harringon’s Battle with Breast Cancer While Pregnant

Jesica Harrington is a 5th grade teacher at Timber Trail Elementary School in Castle Rock, Colorado whose patient story was featured on the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) website and in their 2009 Annual Report. Jesica was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant with twins, lost one of the babies a month later, and “underwent a mastectomy before beginning four rounds of chemotherapy.” She searched for information online and found little on battling breast cancer while pregnant. Her father, who also searched, found out about a blood test that captures, identifies, and counts circulating tumor cells in patients with certain types of metastatic cancer, which Jesica asked her doctor to order. Jesica delivered a healthy baby boy, completed her cancer treatment, and is in remission. I contacted her because of my interest in patient stories, curious about how her story was featured by J&J and why she decided to tell her story in a very public way.

Lisa: You mentioned that being diagnosed with breast cancer when you were pregnant made it harder to find information. Did you find that the professionals treating were less prepared?

Jesica: Initially, the diagnosing doctor seemed insecure about diagnosing my cancer and in explaining how we would treat it.  It was through our (mine and my husband’s) persistence that we went around the recommended procedure and sought out an oncologist directly to help us learn about what we would do with breast cancer and being pregnant with twins.  My oncologist came highly recommended and had prior experience with women in my situation, so I felt I was in good hands.

Lisa: Did you search for information online about breast cancer and pregnancy, or did people recommend sites to you?

Jesica: I had friends send me all kinds of information, mostly success stories and current practices similar to what I was dealing with.  I searched for answers as well, especially because I had so many questions.  The problem was realizing there is a fine line between being/getting educated and just knowing too much.

Lisa: What did you find that was ultimately most helpful?

Jesica: Factual information about types of cancer, methods to treat, drugs and their side effects, and a couple of stories about local women, whom I talked with, who had been through breast cancer while pregnant.

Lisa: How did you learn about J&J’s test?

Jesica: My father was looking for methods to monitor how and if chemotherapy is working.  He came across a local news story, which led us to a newly released test used at the University of Colorado Cancer Center (UCCC).  He told me to take a look at the article, that it was something he thought I should do.  I contacted a rep from the UCCC and inquired how I could take the test.  I persuaded my oncologist to order the test and we went from there.

Lisa: Why did you decide to tell your story?

Jesica:   People were interested in the information I had.  I am a very private person, but also felt that this was something I had to share.  I couldn’t keep it secret, when my own life affected so many around me (students, parents, coworkers, family, friends, neighbors, doctors, other women in my situation, media…) In the back of my mind, I hoped that my diagnosis and battle with breast cancer could and would be used for future references.  After I had been diagnosed, all of my students and co-workers wanted to support me in my battle-they held a “carnival for the cure” from which all proceeds went to my family and me.  Through this event, local papers and news media were contacted.  My story initially appeared on a newscast and in a couple of newspapers.

Lisa: Would you have told others your story had your situation been more “typical”?

Jesica: Yes, but it wasn’t.  I knew that there had to be more people like me out there searching for information and feeling helpless.  Why not take what I’ve experienced and let others learn from it, both from a personal perspective and from a medical point of view.

Lisa: Can you tell me more about the process where J&J contacted, interviewed, and photographed you?

Jesica: Through a publication put out at UCCC, J&J contacted me about the CTC test. I was approached to educate people who are going through a similar experience and to get the word out about a test I found to be helpful during my treatment. I told J&J my story by phone and shared my CaringBridge page as well provided background about all I’d been through. A couple of people come out to interview me, take pictures, and shoot video, both at school while I was teaching and at home that evening. Everything was 100% accurate in both the article and video except they mentioned Boulder instead of Castle Rock in the video.

Lisa: How did you feel about including your students and your family?

Jesica: Fine; I thought it was for a good cause.  Someone could learn from my story and experiences and could see what to expect if they happen to be in the same situation.  I’d like to think I was a success story, which we all need to help us find motivation to fight a battle such as one with breast cancer.

Lisa: I was surprised J&J posted the two articles and videos at http://www.jnj.com/connect/caring/patient-stories/hope-against-cancer/ and http://www.investor.jnj.com/2009annualreport/medical-devices/hope.html without telling you – it seems like they should have let you know, do you agree?

Jesica: Yes.

Lisa: You mentioned that you did other interviews – what made you decide to?

Jesica: I felt strongly about letting others know about a blood test that was out there to help with tracking chemo throughout treatment.  I knew the information wasn’t prevalent and I wanted to get it out there.

Lisa: Has it been helpful for your friends and family that you were open about the process you were going though?

Jesica: Yes, information is very powerful.  I wanted my friends and family to know and understand what I was going through.  People always feel helpless when others are struggling with a disease and going through treatment and they don’t always know how to help, but by being open about it, I think they felt more comfortable in being there for me instead of feeling sorry for me.

Lisa: Finally, does it help you to know that you are helping others? Does talking about it help you process your own emotions?

Jesica: Yes, to both. I’m a teacher – it’s in my blood. I’ve written journals all my life; it’s something that helps me be able to process what comes my way, to reflect and cope.



Blogging for Fun and Profit – Or at Least for Validation and Insights

I had a great discussion today with a colleague about her insights on What’s the Right Thing to Say to Someone Who Is Ill? based on her professional and personal experiences. She validated my ideas and inspired me to take them in new directions. It also reminded me why I like to blog.  Recently I was a featured faculty blogger on the Tufts University home page and said, “As an academic, you have endless ideas but you don’t always have the time to pursue them. What I find the blog is great for is taking some of those ideas, fleshing them out, and posting them… Not only are they are there to go back to when time allows, but I get feedback from people who read my blog and write comments.”

Crucibles as a Metaphor for Learning and Reflection

I am at a Working Knowledge conference on “Judgment and Decisions” at Babson College today, organized by Larry Prusak and Tom Davenport. Bob Thomas, Accenture and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, just spoke about “Crucibles, Judgment and Leadership”. One of his main points is that people have to learn how they learn best, and crucible experiences can be pivotal for many people.

The five key ingredients for going from novice to adept expert performer are having talent, ambition, grasp of method, a great teacher, and feedback. Practice can trump talent, as research on expert performance shows. Outstanding performers devise a personal learning strategy that goes beyond practice to understanding how they learn best – and what their passion is. One way Bob learns what people love to do is by asking what they are doing when they lose track of time – what is often called a flow state.

While this talk focused on how businesses grow leaders, I believe Bob’s insights are valid for anyone in any role, including children with learning disabilities, who are explicitly taught how they learn and strategies to accommodate their learning disability. Many people, however, never reflect on their own learning style.

Bob offered a number of examples of crucible experiences in disparate organizations. The Peace Corp drops people into a developing country and expects, with minimal training, they will not only survive, but will learn and grow. The Mormon Church’s major crucible experience is the mission all members go on, which includes dealing with rejection, learning how to resolve conflicts with the person they are on the mission with, and learning what it means to be Mormon in a non-Mormon world. Hell’s Angels’ crucible experience is the run, a long ride where the leader negotiates the passage from one location to the next, making it more challenging than last year’s run.

Tom Davenport led a discussion focused on if – and should – crucible experiences be institutionalized. He gave examples of team-building experiences such as people falling into each other’s arms and fire-walking, but it is arguable if these are crucible experiences.

Even the examples from the Peace Corps, etc., above are orchestrated in a sense. Bob showed videos of two people discussing crucible experiences and they were serendipitous ones, and also ones where it was easy to see that another person, in the same situation, would have been devastated instead of inspired. Part of what I learned from this discussion is that you can prepare people for, and to be receptive to, learning experiences, but can’t necessarily orchestrate them. I would like to better understand the role of reflection and the extent it can be encouraged or scaffolded, since that seems to me to be a major difference between how people learn from a crucible – or any – experience.

Using a Blog to Aid Reflection (or Would Thomas Jefferson Write a Blog?)

Thomas Jefferson said, “One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.” Robert Davison, in Learning through Blogging: Graduate Student Experiences, finds that blogs help his students at City University of Hong Kong reflect on what they are learning and on the applicability of it to their jobs. He has them blog both in class and on their own. I think the very prolific Thomas Jefferson would have been an active blogger (although not Twitter or other social networking tools), and, like Robert’s students and me, would have found it aided reflection.