Growing faster than change with Action Learning
By Fiona Scrase, co-founder at Action Learning Centre
Peer learning done well is powerful. It builds relationships, creates a willingness to connect, to collaborate and generates a sense of ‘we’. Essentially peer learning is people coming together to learn with and from others, usually as they endeavour to improve or change things.
There are many forms of peer learning; Action Learning is one of them that’s been around since the 1950s.
Reg Revans, the father of AL, asserted that in order for organisations to survive they need to learn (L) at the speed equal to, or greater than the change (C ) being experienced, hence the equation: LC. If learning doesn’t take place then the organisation experiences decline or stagnation. With the ever-increasing pace of change, this seems more relevant today than in the 70s. Organisations that enable and harness collective, peer-based learning are more likely to survive and thrive.
So what is Action Learning?
It’s simple yet profoundly effective. It brings peers together to learn individually and collectively while working through complex challenges. Originally Action Learning (AL) was used within organisations to tackle specific challenges organisations were facing for instance, in the UK coal industry.
Early on, Revans used it with coal pit managers if they had problems. He encouraged small group meetings on-site, using questions about what they saw to find their own solutions, rather than bringing ‘experts’ in to solve problems for them. The technique proved successful and Action Learning was born. It is now a tested approach playing a key role in many leadership development programmes, as well as being used as a stand-alone process.
Over the years there have been ebbs and flows in its popularity, recently we’ve seen it grow rapidly. Action Learning is being adopted and adapted by manufacturing in Korea, in the NHS, the aerospace industry, by sheep farmers in Wales, and Business schools amongst others. Organisations from Microsoft, Heineken, Body Shop to Oxfam, NGOS, PwC to mention a few.
How it works
Action Learning takes place in a small group of peers commonly known as an Action Learning Set (ALS). They meet regularly to focus on tackling challenges and learning from doing so.
Set members, as they are known, have a confidential arena in which to unpick issues and develop their thinking and problem-solving skills. They use a coaching approach based on listening, questioning, support, challenge, testing solutions through action and reflection. After each session, they leave with actions and learning that directly applies to their work.
In a nutshell Action Learning is real people resolving and taking action on real problems or opportunities in real-time and learning while doing so.
AL is a group process so requires a commitment to attend and a willingness to collaborate and learn. The more diverse the group the better.
Principles
The AL process is very structured and facilitated. It is underpinned by the following principles.
Ask Questions rather than give advice
Learning starts with not knowing – we only become open to learning when we admit that we don’t know
Learning occurs best when it involves the whole person, feelings, values as well as skills and thought; and when people are working or real, current issues.
That the content is confidential
With the right support and challenge in a trusting environment, people can find their own solutions
People commit to attending and to the process, knowing it’s a group effort and they are there to support and be supported.
The impact
When described as a process it sounds fairly innocuous however there is real magic in it. This is especially true in Sets that meet over time rather than as a one-off intervention.
One-off interventions can still generate great insight and new ideas yet some of the learning comes with time. As the group members build connection, safety is created, the levels of support and challenge increase and they begin to trust the process. It is in this space where the more impactful learning and transformation happens. A level of companionship is created and learning takes places on multiple levels:
About self, what I learn about myself as I address this challenge
What I learn about and from the task or issue I bring
What I learn about the context or organisation within which I’m operating
What I learn from the Action Learning process itself
All of this alongside people getting things done that matter. Action Learning is truly a rich source of individual and collective learning and development through doing and reflection.
Fiona Scrase, the co-founder of the Action Learning Centre, is a self-confessed Action Learning anorak (geek or nerd for the non-native English speakers). Her love of Action Learning (AL) began in 2000. Since then Fiona's combined her knowledge of learning, facilitation, action learning and coaching to become recognised in the Action Learning field. Fiona facilitates Sets, trains facilitators and works closely with client organisations to implement Action Learning strategies to meet their organisational development objectives.
References:
‘Action Learning: History and Evolution’ by Yury Boshyk and Robert
Dilworth, Palgrave Macmillan 2010
Read more about peer learning:
Open dialog between peers is key by Line Mørkbak