“Being asked questions was very helpful”, “having someone who listen”, and “having a place I can just process while talking”. These are the comments I hear most often at the end of a debriefing. To a large extent, debriefing consists of someone asking open questions and listening to the answers, thus giving someone else space and time to ponder, reflect, and evaluate.
Debriefing should not only happen after a difficult event or in a season of transition. Evaluation and reflection support every growth process; it is something to do regularly. To quote John Dewey: “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
It makes sense, for instance, to debrief this season of the pandemic: What does it do with us and how are we changing? Whether we reflect on our own or have someone to help us, the purpose is to glean insight from experience and set new, motivating goals with the aim to continue to grow.
For most of us, to have someone to talk to as we reflect greatly increases the effectiveness of an evaluation. But how can we help someone in this process?
For this, my friend Brigitte and I developed a tool called ORE. The acronym ORE stands for Online Reflection and Evaluation. (The tool was developed during the pandemic, when everything needed to happen online. However, ideally ORE is used in a face-to-face setting.) But ore is also the raw material from which metal is extracted. What we experience in life is like ore; it contains potential that can be extracted and put to profitable use.
ORE is a step-by-step guide to help someone assess a season, reflect, and recognize what has been positive and where growth or change is needed. One of the aims is to set meaningful goals to move ahead.
ORE focuses on the following four areas of life:
- Relationship with God.
- Relationship with oneself.
- Vocation or ministry.
- Relationship with others.
The process is divided into three consecutive sessions, each up to two hours long. Detailed sets of questions help to lead a person through a reflection process in each area. ORE can also be used as a starting point to support a more extensive assessment.
The tool can be downloaded in both English and German free of charge. You are free to pass it on to others. We would love to see ORE used broadly.
If you would like to get a first-hand experience yourself before using it with others, please get in touch with me and we will find a time for you with either Brigitte or myself.
We hope that ORE will help many to reflect and become, to use John Ortberg’s book title, The Me I Want to Be.