The paper examines whether, if leadership is defined by the willingness to tackle wicked issues, and if action learning is employed for leadership development purposes, do the action learning participants on leadership development programmes address such wicked issues? It adopts a version of dialogical sense-making to consider this and describes…

The assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) is employer-led and provides a programme to support and assess newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) working with children and families and adults during their first year of employment. Action learning was brought into Cambridgeshire County Councils ASYE programme as a 12-month pilot from…

The article describes the experience of forming a set in a higher education institution and offers some observations and insights gained from the perspectives of the role of the set adviser, cultural differences and the challenges of attempting to align theory, practice and experience.

Action learning is often used as an element of leadership development programmes. The intention is to support classroom learning with an experiential thread which runs throughout the life of the programme. Action Learning Associates (ALA) has been working with an international organisation for three years to deliver the global "First Line…

This paper reviews how action learning was used as part of a regional leadership development programme involving a number of public sector organisations. It explores how the sets were designed and set up and the significant challenges that this particular approach brought. A number of positive tangible outcomes were produced from the sets and…

This account examines the action learning process adopted by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., embedded in the organization through the in-company Emerald Academy. In case study format, the paper emphasizes that in order to align learning with organizational objectives joined up thinking and practice is needed beyond the learning and development…

During my first year of practice as a new action learning facilitator undertaking an "ILM Level 5 Certificate in Action Learning Facilitation", an innovative Individual Service Fund pilot was launched by "Certitude", the organisation for which I work. The aim of this pilot was to enable people with learning disabilities and…

The authors explore their experience of a course for long-term unemployed people and reflect as to whether the traits identified by Tom Bourner on readiness for action learning actually relate to their experience. They conclude that based on the obvious development by the members of the group over the course, they observed, in some small way, the…

In this paper we evaluate an action learning-based, leadership development programme designed for founders and leaders of growth-oriented, entrepreneurial small to medium-sized enterprises. Based on in-depth, qualitative interviews with participants on one cohort, undertaken two years after completion of the seven-month programme, we demonstrate…

This account of practice outlines a national programme for current and aspiring leaders in the arts and cultural sector. One of the main constituents of this leadership offer was an intensive six-day action learning facilitator training programme. This account reviews this programme with the help of reflections from two participants, each of whom…

This account tells the story of the development of an action learning culture in the BBC between 2002 and 2007. From its early beginnings as a sporadic, unsystematic intervention with a small number of leaders scattered throughout the organisation, action learning has now become embedded in our approach to the way we develop our leaders. In this…

This article explores the role of action learning in a national programme of research and development. The aim of the programme was to improve provision for disabled learners in the learning and skills sector by supporting providers in implementing the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act (2002). Practitioners worked on a wide range…

Action learning is being increasingly utilised as a strategy to underpin practitioner focused development and research projects in healthcare generally and nursing in particular. Whilst facilitators of and participants in action learning have a variety of resource materials to guide their practice and participation, there continue to be few…

Pharma Development has used action learning to help participants in their 360[degrees] feedback programme develop their leadership competencies. The article describes how the programme was designed, supported and run across four sites over a period of 2 years. The programme was systematically evaluated and found to be successful in meeting its…