Quite simply, what is Action Learning about?
The most important underpinning of Action Learning is that “There can be no learning without action; and conversely there can be no action without an aspect of learning.” In that way Action Learning is quite radical in the demands it makes. It’s well captured by a quote “Action learning is subversive, it values everyone, is democratic, stresses listening, insists on actions, gives courage, encourages responsibility and examines everything.”
So is it like applied learning?
No, it’s fundamentally different from applied learning. When we work with clients, the fundamental question we ask, is “What results do you need to deliver for your business?” And then from there “What do you need to learn to deliver those results?” and of course “What actions do you need to take?” So the desired end goal provides the starting point for any “training” that the individual or organization deploys. What’s hardest to know is knowing “what you don’t know”. Revans says “only if…particularly the expert can be persuaded to draw a map of his own ignorance, is she or he likely to develop her or his full potential.
So is Action Learning then not in danger of being dogmatic or prescriptive?
In one particular way only, in that it insists on action because its only in the process of doing something that you can initiate the Action Learning cycle. For your learning to be complete you need to move through all the stages of the cycle. When the full motion through the stages doesn’t occur, then learning is incomplete; either you go into “Plan-Act madness” or you can get into “Analysis Paralysis” or if you don’t draw conclusions based on reflecting deeply about what your past experience of business strategy has shown you, and plan to do something different, the learning remains incomplete.
In that way action learning encourages one to try things and approaches out, and then after taking action, going through the learning cycle again, to ensure that learning is a continued integrated process in all of what you do and your business does.
Can anyone “do” Action Learning?
Well anyone can learn how to do it; its much easier to make a quick start if its facilitated. We all have different Learning Styles, typically represented by each of the 4 stages, so I can be Activist – learning by doing, Reflective – learning by thinking and observing, Analyst – learning by analyzing and evaluating or being Pragmatist – learning through planning and trying out. I am a Reflector-Activist. No style is better than another, but it’s almost like, you can’t get all the benefits if your Learning style dominates how you learn and act. So when working with Action Learning, a facilitator helps people to check out the Learning cycle, and complete each phase.
It sounds quite complex. How do you go about it?
Its actually simple if not easy. You really need to experience it because then you understand its simplicity. Someone said “Action Learning takes so long to describe…because it is so simple”. Learning involves 2 different but complementary things, Programmatic Knowledge, the sort of information you get from textbook theory and going on a course, and adding to that “Questioning Insight”.
So is this very method oriented?
There’s certainly a method to doing insightful questioning. But it doesn’t look at the world in a “cookie cutter” way; i.e. its structured but not prescriptive apart from its insistence on asking open ended questions driven by genuine curiosity about the problems which colleagues in an organization are facing. Action learning can incorporate and get to grips with very complex, ambiguous, unstructured situations, which, let’s face it, pretty much describes the context in which businesses operate in the global economy.
OK, it does sound a bit problem-focussed; so how do you actually “do it"?
In Action learning, the word “problem” is a positive, or neutral word. An action learning problem is simply a challenge which doesn’t have a straightforward right or wrong solution. For a business challenge that has this simplicity of one of 2 ways of solving it, we use the word “puzzle”.
The Action Learning method has three main components – people who accept the responsibility for taking action on a particular issue; problems or task that people set for themselves; and a set of six or so colleagues who support and challenge each other to make progress on problems.
So in a paragraph, what does Action Learning “do” for an organization?
Well it can help to deliver real world results. It does this in a very specific way by developing the skills of learning to learn.