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16 Kauri Street, Woburn, Hutt City, New Zealand
email:
Manager@virtual.co.nz
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ActionLearning The six components
1 The problem
The problem needs to be critical, complex and urgent to the organisation, team or individual. Often the problem is so complex that no existing solution exists for it.
The group has a responsibility to find and solve the real problem not just to accept the given problem. It needs to be courageous and select a goal it believes is most strategic and has the most staying power.
2 The group
The membership of the group should be between six and eight people. Members are sort for diverse perspectives and characteristics rather than for their experience or rank in the organisation. Diversity is more important than expertise for solving complex problems and developing new individual, team and organisational knowledge and competencies. Action learning is a wonderful opportunity to involve people with different thinking styles (Herrmann) and from across the whole value chain to solve organisational-wide problems.
3 The questions
Most problem-solving groups begin with various members offering solutions. Questions are rarely heard, but statements and advocacy are rampant. In action learning, questions and reflection are the mainstays of working on and solving the problem. Finding the great question is the key task and skill of the group. Reflective inquiry more quickly leads to consensus and quality actions.
Action learning recognises that problem solving must begin by first diverging, through the use of inquiry, and only then should the narrowing and converging occur. People are encouraged to ask dumb and fresh questions.
Questions are important because the first step in solving every problem is to be sure you know what the problem is. In action learning we focus on the right questions rather than the right answers because the right questions will lead to the right answers. Questions cause us to think and to learn. Questions create energy and vitality in the group since they trigger a need to listen, to seek a common truth and to justify a opinions and viewpoints.
4 The action
Action learning groups exist for the purpose of determining actions that their organisations will be taking, not merely making recommendations. Because they are the only people working on a particular problem, they are accountable and responsible for achieving a breakthrough solution. Reframing the problem proceeds identification of the strategies. Action is not only important for its own sake, but also to provide opportunities for learning. One cannot learn how to serve a tennis ball unless he hits it, in the same way an individual or group cannot learn unless there is an opportunity to implement.
Often more than one strategy will need to be developed and then tested. Multiple alternatives will increase the possibility of better actions and results. Pilot actions will enable the group to gain a greater assurance of the ultimate success of the actions taken and a higher level of learning.
5 The learning
In action learning, the learning is as important as the successful solution of the problem. Everyone in the group must seek to learn as well as seek solutions. Time and energy are spent at all sessions to capture individual, team, and organisational earnings.
Action learning only works when everyone is willing to learn and help each other to learn. This requires cohesiveness and trust, respecting others and developing their ideas.
Part of the attractiveness of action learning lies in its ability to increase the knowledge of the organisation at the same time that it is solving critical, urgent and complex problems that need to be solved anyway.
6 The coach
The coach’s job is to ensure that learning receives attention and time. The coach helps the group capture and leverage its learning, examine its progress and identify what will make the group more effective. The key skill of the coach is the ability to ask questions.
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