This paper proposes action learning has a role to play in advancing responsible AI. Despite the recent surge in attention towards artificial intelligence, predominantly focusing on its technological and commercial aspects, the social dimensions have often been overlooked. Action learning, known for fostering interdisciplinary discourse, is…

This paper explores the experiences of six Academic Skills Tutors (AST) responsible for facilitating action learning sets (ALS) on a postgraduate module. Our research focused on two elements: first, what did the tutors understand by the term critically reflexive practice in the context of business and management? Second, what has supported the…

Action learning is one of the most effective leadership development interventions [Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm, and McKee. 2014. "Advances in Leader and Leadership Development: A Review of 25 Years of Research and Theory." The Leadership Quarterly 25 (1): 63-82; Pauleen. 2003. "Leadership in a Global Virtual Team: An Action…

This paper poses the question 'What can we learn from the person-centred counselling literature which could be used by the action learning facilitator to help benefit the set?'. This question may be particularly important to facilitators seeking new ways to run their sets and to facilitators who would like to introduce a more humanistic and less…

The educational benefits of challenge- or problem-based approaches to learning are now well established. Action Research (AR) and Action Learning (AL) together provide educators with an ethic, a research methodology and a pedagogical strategy for harnessing and developing the motive power of purposeful activity for reflective enquiry in teaching…

This Account of Practice concerns a short training programme for action learning facilitators, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The programme is run on action learning principles and it involves participants working as an action learning set, taking turns to act as facilitators, set members, and issue holders, and reflecting on the…

Critical Action Learning (CAL) is undertaken with an awareness of the persistent tension in organisations between the desire to learn and defences against learning. Attempts to learn in organisations are inevitably bound up with the specific emotional and political context that organisations create, as well as the impact that this has on the…

This paper seeks to advance the understanding of the complementarity between action learning and lean. Today, this is an underexplored research area, despite the high degree of similarities and syngeneic possibilities between these two research streams. The paper describes an action learning intervention at VELUX, a Danish rooftop manufacturer…

This account of practice offers reflections and insights on facilitating Action Learning (AL) in Leadership Programmes within the Higher Education context. The account shares our reflections and key observations as practitioner academics, facilitating AL Sets within three higher education leadership programmes. We draw on our knowledge and…

Amid the backdrop of the global pandemic and other complex societal and organizational challenges, the demand for proficient people management skills among managers and leaders has become increasingly urgent. The ensuing narrative offers an account of a leadership development initiative tailored for line managers and delivered amid the pandemic.…

This paper introduces a facilitated co-constructed action learning approach with a narrative account of the author's own learning on designing and delivering an executive education programme. Action learning has double inference in this context as the author developed and improved teaching design and delivery through action learning. He also…

The paper identifies what is meant by culture and examines approaches to mapping it, while suggesting alternatives. It notes the global spread of action learning, expressed through the prism of Western values, although practice is not necessarily reflective of the original ethos. It offers some rules of thumb on the use of action learning in…

This account of practice describes an online program started in 2022, which helps leaders at BNP Paribas to be more effective problem solvers and inclusive leaders by developing stronger questioning and listening skills. The goals of this program were aligned with action learning and could have been achieved with standard, coach-led action…

Scholars have examined Revans' problem-solving praxeology in many contexts but have not fully explored the concept in the case of physical co-location. Hence, we focussed on investigating Revans' conceptualisation in a co-located context by paying particular attention to the 'different forms of learning' that emerged from it. The research setting…

This paper focuses on a two-year program with a Norwegian public sector project-based construction company, where action learning groups and critical incident technique were combined to enhance organizational learning. Project-based organizations typically face difficulties of 'project amnesia', as they fail to integrate learning from experience…