Reflect, Adapt, Succeed: The key to reflective learning 

That’s a wrap. After three weeks and five capital cities, Village Summit 2023 finished up in Sydney yesterday.   

Across the country we were joined by more than 600 village professionals, executives, sponsors and one world class motivational speaker in Matt Church. 

This year we presented delegates with the inaugural DCM Institute Learning Journal to allow attendees to capture those learning moments to take back to their communities or discuss with their peers during the networking breaks. 

From a Learning and Development perspective, it was fantastic to see these journals put to use across the day, capturing insights and those little nuggets of gold shared by our speakers. 

Now, before you put those Learning Journals away in your desk drawer, we wanted to take a moment and ask you to STOP. 

Here is why.  

For the next five minutes, take out your Learning Journal for a moment of ‘reflective learning.’ 

Reflective Learning is when you look back on an experience like the Village Summit or any of our Professional Development Days to reflect, adapt and sow the seeds for success.  

Here are a few questions to consider when reviewing your notes on the day. 

• Which sessions stood out the most to me, and why? 
• What were the key takeaways or actionable insights that I can apply in my professional practice? &, how? 
• Did any sessions challenge my existing beliefs or assumptions? How can I further explore or reconcile these differences? 
• In what ways can I share the knowledge gained from this conference with colleagues? 
• How can I set up a support system so I can track how the implementation of the above ideas are tracking? 

Reflective learning can be a powerful tool. As a technique, it ensures insights from an experience are adapted into our professional lives so they might be replicated for success. 

We hope to see these Learning Journals back with you in 2024.

For those who couldn’t make it to VILLAGE SUMMIT, the content will be available online and in the Knowledge Centre for our program participants soon.