Action Learning

"Action learning is a continuous process of learning and reflection that happens with the support of a group or ‘set’ of colleagues, working on real issues, with the intention of getting things done. The voluntary participants in the group or ‘set’ learn with and from each other each other and take forward an important issue with the support of the other members of the set.

Action learning is a collaborative process, which recognises set members’ social context, helps people to take an active stance towards life, overcome the tendency to be passive towards the pressures of life and work, and aims to benefit both the organisation and the individual."
(Adapted from McGill & Brockbank 2004)

Main features:

• Individuals meet together in a group (known as a set).
• Five to seven people make up a set.
• Each person brings a real issue/problem or project to the set that s/he wishes to progress.
• The whole set works on the issue for the benefit of the person presenting the issue.
• The aim for the presenter is to be able to take action on the issue and to reflect and learn from the action.
• Typically the action learning set meets for one day every 5-6 weeks for a cycle of meetings over one year.
• The set will create explicit ground rules to ensure effective working.

Action learning is distinctive because the process stresses that is not only important that the person understands the situation but is also able to act on the situation.
Each person when they present to the set takes responsibility for any subsequent action. The other set members do not give advice or say what they would do.

For each person in the set a cycle of learning and action is built into the process: intended action leading to learning in and from the experience of the action (between set meetings), leading to further a reframing of the picture via reflection and potentially new ways of seeing the situation.

A key notion in action learning is the idea that in any situation there is some room for manoeuvre. An individual need not resign themselves to a situation.