Resilience through reflection and auto-confrontation training

Abstract

Auto-confrontation involves explaining and examining notes, recordings, and/or measurements of self in actualizing certain activity. The approach has been applied for developing workers’ new learning. Assumedly, auto-confrontation is useful for developing resilience through enhancing employees' interpretative capabilities, because it allows the workers to consider, examine and re-imagine their own work practices – some findings pointing towards this direction exist already. By reviewing existing auto-confrontation and adult pedagogy literature, it is possible to identify seven features, which are to be considered in arranging auto-confrontation sessions: 1) motivation, needs and volunteers, 2) to-be-considered tasks and phases in work, 3) form of auto-confrontation material, 4) auto-confrontation sessions configuration, 5) alternative representations, 6) dissemination and discussion, and 7) establishing continuous training. A poster presentation allows to discuss these features in view of two finalized case studies and an upcoming project. All of the three projects have shared the aim of developing resilience in safety-critical work through enhancing workers’ reflection on their own work practices. The two finalized projects were on robotic surgery and nuclear power plant control center work operations, while the upcoming project concerns nuclear power plant maintenance.  Distinctively different types of auto-confrontation methods were used in the two finalized projects due to differences in work-related practical issues and organizational needs and preferences: the other project applied video-recordings of (mainly) individual activity whereas the other applied self-made notes of group work as auto-confrontation material.