Action Learning in Practice, 4th edition (2011) edited by Mike Pedler (2011) is an authoritative text on action learning and continues to evidence how action learning has a wide application to personal and organisational learning in the twenty‐first century. The structure of the text is usefully arranged in four sections: Origins, Varieties, Applications and Questions. Each section includes contributions from current thinkers and practitioners in the field of applied learning and this allows for a profusion of ideas to emerge and for readers to dip in and out of with ease. The content will appeal to students, trainers, facilitators, human resource and organisational development practitioners alike. This reader provides easy access to case‐material, core theory, references, current debates and pragmatic advice to suit organisational leaders, groups or individuals, wishing to improve their existing action learning provision or design and implement an action learning strategy. The content is wide reaching and draws upon the experiences of action learning and problem‐solving processes in large, small, global, European and UK‐based organisations. This edition has been carefully reworked, revised and updated to good effect and provides a platform for the latest research findings of its global contributors. This is a critical text which, in recognition of the growing complexity of organisational life, identifies how the application of action learning requires continues appraisal, adaptation and refinement to service the goal of improved organisational performance.
The first section focuses on the origins of action‐based learning and development from its earliest industrial interception of the 1940s via the seminal work of the original thinker and developer, Reg Revans (1907‐2003). We are reminded that action learning has its roots within a humanistic paradigm and how improvements to human learning systems has the potential to debunk the classical bureaucratic sensibility of “top‐down” decision making in pursuit of the benefits of empowering the individual to act upon their own experience. There is no better summary than Revans’ epithet: “There can be no learning without action, and no (sober and deliberate) action without learning”. Garratt's chapter The Power of Action Learning helpfully identifies his revisions, since the 3rd edition (1997), in italics. For anyone coming to the text for the first time this is a good overview of the operational aspects of action learning to include a consideration of managing the inevitable risks and uncertainties during times of organisational reform and renewal. Minding our Ps and Qs by Morris is a critical overview of the “programming” and “questioning” components of action learning wherein he discusses the contentious nature of action learning and the care required when extrapolating new meanings in organisations and disrupting old structures of power and authority and “egos”. Continuity in Action Learning by Lawrence continues the theme of action learning interventions and how best to keep them “alive”, and “vital”. Casey, On the Role of the Set Adviser, identifies a range of skills, knowledge and behaviours which he considers key to the role of: Advisors, Facilitators and Participants of Action Learning Programmes or “sets”. Casey invites a wry smile from his reader by listing the characteristics he deems unhelpful to the role. Willis draws on her action learning work in the USA and proposes “Revans’” Gold Standard of Action Learning. This chapter charts a cross‐cultural application of Revans’ core principles and provides taxonomies for modelling action learning and collaboration, which Willis refers to as, “co‐beneficial” Boshyk writes Ad Fontes – Reg Revans: Some Early Sources of His Personal Growth and Values which treats the reader to a rich historical trajectory of Revans’ life and insight of his beliefs and attachments which may well have shaped the core values of action learning as an egalitarian learning tool. Last in the section, Pearce provides a pragmatic chapter on Getting Started: An Action Manual which gives a range of checklists and diagnostic tools to get started and clear instructions to the instigator of any future learning programme. His “Action Learning Web” is a useful concept which could be adapted for use with participating or recipient stakeholders who stand to benefit from an action learning intervention.
Section 2 turns its attention towards the application of action learning. Bourner gives practical advice on, Self‐Managed Action Learning, and illustrates his content with a range of case‐material. He stresses the need to establish the beliefs and values of the “set” and the value of an initial Foundation Workshop. Rohlin writes on Action Reflection Learning (ARL) drawing upon his work at the Mil Institute, Sweden. The role of reflection in this case study has parallels with Schon's “Reflection in Action” and the outcomes of the ARL programme dovetail with many of the aspirations and core intent of Revans’ action learning. Boshyk discusses Business‐Driven Action Learning (BDAL) which was first launched in global companies in 1996. BDL, at first sight, appears to be a move away from the “experimental” nature of Revans’ action learning and the critical nature of the chapter addresses the benefits and disadvantages of the mode. Authors Goodman and Stewart provide an exciting section on Virtual Action Learning (VAL). The projects extend to 3D virtual worlds with computer‐simulated environments which create real‐world rules such as gravity and real‐time actions. The authors prompt our thoughts around a co‐constructionist view of knowledge made possible by technological innovation and challenges current didactic modes of knowledge transference. Trehan writes on Critical Action Learning (CAL) and invites the reader to reassess the nature of organisations and their inhabitants as multilayered and to question the presumption that management practice is objective and value free. Trehan calls on action learning facilitators to be vigilant of unconscious processes and emotional political contexts. Likewise, Marshall writing on The Practice and Politics of Living Inquiry challenges the nature inquiry, Action Research methodology and other approaches to “[…] see through current hierarchies of power and valuing, listening […] continually checking against purpose and experimenting and reviewing as we go along”. O’Neil and Marsick provide a comprehensive overview of the differing schools of thought within action learning practices, specifically, the: Tacit School; Collaborative Self‐Directed Learning School; Scientific School; Experiential School; Critical Reflective School. This chapter will assist practitioners and designers of action learning programmes to choose learning strategies which best suit their desired outcomes.
Section 3 gathers together contributions which focus on the application of action learning in a variety of settings. Thorpe's Leadership writes on the application of action learning to leadership and management development. Venner's Developing Facilitative Leaders purports that the process of leaders learning to be action learning facilitators brings about a shift in focus away from “internal” reflection to an “external” focus of action‐based decision making; resulting in skills more fitted to “Facilitative” and “Distributed” Leadership. Anderson, Gold and Gibb review 30 years of supporting management learning in small enterprises and concur that SME managers benefit widely from the experience of action learning. Yonjoo Cho and Hyeon‐Cheol write on the popular rise of action learning in Korea. Rigg's contribution Addressing Systematic Issues in Public Services identifies systemic potential of action learning in UK Public Service alongside some of the tensions. Mcgill and Brockbank write on Facilitation and the Affective Domain. They identify how the ability of the Facilitator to access their own emotional domain may, through modelling, nurture the skill amongst set members. Abbott and Boydell's chapter Learning to be an Action Learning Facilitator: Three Approaches identifies difference within facilitators’ experience of learning. The following three chapters: Edmonstone's Action Learning and Organisational Development; Donnenberg's Network Learning in an Austrian Hospital; and Pedler and Attwood's Action Learning and Social Capital explore different aspects of action learning applied to organisational development strategies. Finally, Marquard provides an overview of how action learning has a global application in, Action Learning around the World.
Considering Revans’ methodology of pursuing “questioning insight” Section 4 explores the future application of action learning. Burgoyne begins the section with Action Learning: A Pragmatic and Moral Philosophy, wherein he asks if it is possible to hold a philosophical stance which is both pragmatic and moral?, Burgoyne builds on the previous chapter and proposes practical solutions for evaluating action learning in Evaluating Action Learning: A Perspective Informed by Critical Realism, Network and Complex Adaptive Systems Theory. Coghlan contributes Practical Knowing: The Philosophy and Methodology of Action Learning Research by advancing Revans’ work on systems theory and identifying some interesting ways in which action learning research can align to new paradigms in organisational inquiry. Raelin's The Action Modalities: Action Learning's Good Company explores how action learning works within the social domain of organisational life, by sharing “action modalities” and fostering collaboration and democratic change. Yeo and Gold's Action in Action Learning considers the notion of action viewed from a philosophical and sociological perspective. Vygotsky's “Action Triangle” is considered by the authors’ and the role of language and psychological tools as a means of harnessing capability and promoting “action” rather than “inaction”. Likewise Vince's Learning in Action or Learning Inaction? Emotion and Politics in Action Learning is a considered discussion and reminder to practitioners that action learning can manifest as learning “inaction” and that resistance is symptomatic of the extent to which emotions and organisational politics shape the experience. Reynold's Reflective Practice: Origins and Interpretations questions how we may improve our practice through critical reflection. Finally, Waddill and Marquardt's Adult Learning Theories and the Practice of Action Learning examine how adult learning theories provide a synergy with action learning.
In recognition of the acclaim action learning has secured in recent history this text is essential reading for anyone interested in harnessing the human capital of an organisation.
