Higher education institutions can be key agents of innovation and regional development. Nevertheless, they are in a transition period: good, tried, and tested practices no longer work or do not work as well as they used to, while new, fully developed, and widely applied solutions are yet to emerge. In this paper, we investigate to what extent…

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 account of practice describes how elected representatives, politically appointed managers and career officers of the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council have adopted action learning as a way of learning how to transform their institution, an important aspect of which has been to find locally situated ways of establishing and consolidating the…

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 paper presents how language-in-use, and its political features, shapes our world(s) and the potential or limitations of our agency in it. It proposes that, with the democratic relational practices of Action Learning, we can, together, enhance social justice and wellbeing for all.

This account of practice offers practical examples of the use of reflective journaling and WhatsApping as part of a novice action learner's practice on her undergraduate degree programme. The action learning set was part of a degree apprentices programme which required the first author to complete a work-based learning module involving the…

The COVID-19 pandemic changed familiar working practices overnight; Routine face to face meetings could not be held, accordingly, businesses were forced to replace routine meetings by digital technology to engage socially dispersed stakeholders in the task of maintaining business continuity. Radical sports cars are a motorsports business that has…

Is there a viable pedagogical method to prepare people, as they engage together in their practice, for the assumption of collective leadership? In this article the author makes the case that such a method is already available via action learning but for its adoption as a collective leadership development approach. The author's agenda is twofold:…

This account of practice shares insights from past and present members of a self-facilitating action learning set, where each of the members is an action learning facilitator. Motivations for joining the set encompassed the opportunity to 'practice what you preach' by being a set member as well as a facilitator, the potential to refine and develop…

Promoting open reflection and exploration on group dynamics is delicate work and is often considered 'not very business-like' in a business context. How to approach this work is a constant balance and struggle for action learning practitioners. In this account of practice, we present central elements in our action learning framework -- Action…

This article concerns the origins of the idea of action learning, especially the claim by Revans that his Memorandum on "The Entry of Girls into the Nursing Profession" in Essex hospitals written in 1938 was the first step in the development of action learning. Whilst Revans repeatedly made this claim, there is no evidence in the actual…

This account relates my experiences as facilitator of an action learning set on a DBA cohort comprising international students and myself. It outlines the reasons for my selection as facilitator and describes my initial expectations and assumptions of action learning. I chart the difficulty in separating the 'what' of my own research from the…

ResDiary is a Glasgow-based software company providing software to the hospitality industry. Over a 9-year period the company has grown from 5 to 100 employees and increased annual turnover 20x. In January 2019, the CEO retired from the business and two new CEOs were appointed. This account of practice investigates what organisational changes were…

This account of practice provides a practical example of the use of mindfulness practice within action learning which was a component of a bespoke UK Business School post-graduate leadership development programme commissioned by an English NHS Mental Health Trust aimed at improving the leadership capacity of mid-level managers through work-based…

Business Action Learning Tasmania's (BALT) mission is self-reliant industry development, with diverse companies co-operating to improve their profitability, develop their people and grow the local economy. This is achieved through collaborative action learning, with companies working together on projects of vital importance and sharing the…