1. Donald Schön – The Reflective Practitioner (1983)
Donald Schön introduced the concept of the “reflective practitioner” in The Reflective Practitioner (1983), fundamentally reshaping professional education. Rather than viewing expertise as the simple application of technical knowledge, Schön argued that professionals operate in situations of uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity. In these “swampy lowlands” of practice, leaders and practitioners must think while doing. He distinguished between reflection-in-action (thinking during the event) and reflection-on-action (thinking after the event), positioning reflection as a live, dynamic process rather than a retrospective exercise alone.
Schön’s contribution is philosophical as much as practical. He challenges the assumption that rational, technical models alone are sufficient for leadership and professional judgement. Instead, he frames reflection as a disciplined inquiry into one’s own assumptions, values and framing of problems. For leadership development, this is foundational: selfless leadership requires not only behavioural adjustment, but deeper examination of how we construct meaning, power and responsibility in action.
New Public Leadership (NPL) is a value and behavioural based approach to leadership that seeks to address the complexity and associated difficulties of assessing leadership in a collective sense rather than the previous literature and research that generally considers individual leadership and focuses on traits and characteristics.
2. David Kolb – Experiential Learning Theory (1984)
David A. Kolb built on earlier educational thinkers to develop a systematic model of how learning occurs through experience. In Experiential Learning (1984), Kolb proposed that learning is a continuous cycle involving four stages: Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation, and Active Experimentation. Learning is not linear but cyclical; insight emerges through movement around this loop, transforming experience into understanding and then into informed action.
Kolb’s model provides a powerful architecture for leadership development because it ensures that reflection leads to adaptation. Experience alone does not guarantee growth; it must be examined, theorised and then tested through new behaviour. Within a leadership context, Kolb ensures that reflection is not merely contemplative but developmental. It connects insight to practice, turning personal awareness into deliberate leadership evolution.
3. Graham Gibbs – The Reflective Cycle (1988)
Graham Gibbs offered a more structured and accessible reflective model in Learning by Doing (1988). His six-stage cycle — Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion, Action Plan — provides a clear scaffold for learners, particularly in professional and applied contexts. Gibbs separates emotional response from analytical reasoning, ensuring that reflection considers both affective and cognitive dimensions of experience.
Where Schön provides philosophical depth and Kolb offers a learning architecture, Gibbs provides procedural clarity. His model is especially useful for developing disciplined reflective habits, guiding practitioners beyond superficial description toward actionable improvement. In leadership terms, Gibbs helps individuals confront both the emotional undercurrents and behavioural consequences of their decisions — a necessary step in cultivating self-awareness, accountability and ethical presence.
Meanwhile, we will continue to explore the CMO configurations in terms of public leadership and the NPL framework particularly. The three key elements of Realistic Evaluation (RE) define the three elements of the model. RE has an explanatory rather than a judgmental focus. It develops a multi-level approach to context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations. This lends itself to this evaluation of leading in the public interest. The focus of the basic evaluative question changes from ‘what works?’, to ‘what is it about this programme or intervention that works for whom in what circumstances? (in this case, the practice of public leadership as a form of collective leadership).
Each of these will be explored in the following pages of this section.
REFLECTING ON THE REFLECTION MODELS!
Reflection is not an optional add-on to leadership development; it is the discipline that turns experience into wisdom. In complex and uncertain environments, leaders cannot rely on technical knowledge alone. They must think while acting, learn from what unfolds, and refine their judgement over time. This chapter introduces three foundational models of reflective practice — those of Donald Schön, David Kolb and Graham Gibbs — and explores how, together, they create a powerful architecture for ethical, adaptive and generative leadership.
Hover over each of the links to see which page it links to
