The article discusses the author's transformative journey, who transitioned from a traditional trainer to a passionate action learning coach through a series of personal and professional experiences. On top of that, the knowledge and experiences gained from action learning marked a pivotal moment, leading to a profound shift in the approach to…

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 explores the professional practice of the Action Learning (AL) facilitator through a process of critical inquiry, self-reflection and evaluation of action learning practice within a Higher Education Leadership Programme, commissioned by an English NHS Mental Health Trust. Action research was adopted as the overarching research approach…

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…

Action learning is seen under many guises, being adapted into different contexts (Marsick and O'Neil [1999. "The Many Faces of Action Learning." "Management Learning" 30 (2): 159-176.]). This is especially true in higher education, due to the divergent requirements and challenges of multiple action learning programmes and…

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 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…

This paper outlines the outcomes from three rounds of action learning sets with a charity that supports vulnerable adults and those with learning disabilities in supported living and residential care. The action learning sets focused on safeguarding cases and how they had been managed by 11 leaders at various levels of the charity (the team). The…

This account of practice focusses on insights from the 'early days' of an action learning set within a leadership development programme in the English NHS. The account describes experiences of forming as a set as an important foundation for trust. Developing trust between set members enabled members to take more risks, sharing current and complex…

This paper presents a case study based on the evaluation of the two VAL (virtual action learning) sets. We report participants learning both leadership and the VAL process based on the basis of telephone interviews. We conclude that what is learned about leadership is connected with how learning takes place and suggest that the content and process…

This paper examines an adapted action learning approach to develop four social learning leaders. The Alberta Women in Sport Leadership Impact Program is a social learning intervention with the goals of supporting women in developing their leadership capabilities and increasing gender equity across sport. To support the facilitation of this…

In partnership with both a local external consulting group (GENE100) working with UK based action learning specialist organisation (C-ALF), a state-owned large Chinese corporation transformed its leadership learning potential by integrating action learning methodologies into its core leadership development programme whilst addressing…

In completing an action learning facilitation qualification in 2012, I documented an account of practice during the first year of my experience as a facilitator. The main areas of my learning related to four themes: fear of rejection, using and abusing power, content versus process and critical action learning. These learnings are linked to…

This account of practice explores the use of an action learning programme with a team in a Public Relations agency in Bangkok, Thailand. The programme aimed at improving team and individual performance, including leadership, self-awareness, ownership of work, communication and collaboration. The article describes the context and intended purpose…

Human resource development professionals in Higher Education are continually striving to develop efficient interventions to increase the capabilities of their leaders. As a result of evaluating feedback from an action learning (AL) programme designed and delivered in North West Higher Education Institutions in the UK for women in senior academic…