ACTION LEARNING
Required Material
First, start out with this short video:
Kristiansen, T. (2010). Align corporate learning with strategy setting. [Books24x7 version]. Available in the Online Library.
This is probably the toughest topic of this class so make sure to take some time to carefully go through all of the readings. The following book chapter will give you a general overview of action learning and is a good place to start:
Book JacketPassmore, J. (2011). Chapter 3: Action learning supervision for coaches. Supervision in Coaching: Supervision, Ethics, and Continuous Professional Development. London: Kogan Page. [EBSCO eBook Collection]
Now read up on action learning in much more detail in these following readings:
Book Jacket
Pedler, M., & Abbott, C. (2013). Chapter 1: Action learning: Its origins and principles. Facilitating Action Learning: A Practitioner’s Guide. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education. [EBSCO eBook Collection]
Book Cover ImageMarquardt, M. J. (2004). Chapter 8: Introducing, implementing, and sustaining action learning. Optimizing the Power of Action Learning: Solving Problems and Building Leaders in Real Time. Yarmouth, ME, USA: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. [Ebrary]
Action learning is one of the tougher topics of this module, so if you are still have some difficulty with the concepts you may want to take a look at some of the optional materials below.
Optional Material
Clifford, J., & Thorpe, S. (2007). Chapter 4: Learning and development methods. Workplace Learning & Development: Delivering Competitive Advantage for Your Organization. London: Kogan Page, pp. 29-32. [eBook Academic Collection. Note: You dont have to read the whole chapter, just the section on action learning]
Peters, M. (2013). Accomplish two for one with action learning. T + D, 67(2), 52-57. [ProQuest]
Module 4 – SLP
ACTION LEARNING
For this assignment, pretend that you are a leadership development coach assigned to help some organizations fix their action learning programs. For each of the scenarios below, explain what you think went wrong and how it could be fixed based on what you have learned about action learning in the background readings. For each of the three scenarios, explain your diagnosis and use at least one citation from the required readings to support your diagnosis. Your paper should be two to three pages in length:
A group of 20 from different departments from within an organization is put together to form an action learning set. At their meetings, every person is allowed to present and receive feedback from other set members and their coach. At first they are allowed to present and receive feedback for a half hour each but group members become exhausted from 10 hour meetings. Then this time is cut to 5 minutes per person but group members feel they are unable to learn or get adequate feedback from their coach and other group members in this amount of time.
A CEO picks an important problem for an action learning group consisting of five senior managers. The group meets every month for a full day for nine months. After nine months, each group member feels that they have learned a lot from receiving feedback every month and has improved several areas of their leadership skills. The group presents to the CEO a detailed plan along with steps they have already taken to help solve the problem and the results they have seen. But the CEO is upset because they didnt come up with the solution the wanted and orders the group out of his office.
A group of several managers is put together to form an action learning set. The group members are very motivated to start this program and excited about the possibilities for developing their skills. The facilitator for the action learning program is a top assistant to the CEO. During group meetings, team members are reluctant to discuss difficulties they are facing in their tasks. Whenever a team member gives a presentation, they tend to only discuss positive experiences and they never criticize the organization
