The essence of action learning

(image used in UK National Health Service)

The world is a mad place.  Many of us have mad jobs and sadly many of us don’t have jobs at all.  The training course to tell us what we need to know to deal with all this madness and complexity doesn’t exist.

And yet we know, we need a focus for our continuing learning.

The founder of ‘Action Learning’, Reg Revans said something like ‘for an organisation to be healthy the rate of learning has to exceed the rate of change’.  We know the rate of change is increasing and increasing – how is your rate of learning doing ?

I think we could re-phrase the quote to say something like ‘the depth of our learning has to exceed (or at least match) the depth of change’.  That is not so much that we have a lot to learn (although of course we undoubtedly do), but rather many of us need to fundamentally re-appraise the way we learn and the way we ensure an appropriate balance between action and learning.

Action Learning is a well recognised methodology for ensuring that learning meets the live, real-time, actual needs of people. It is well documented in lots of places.  Six experienced professionals have teamed up with Action Learning Associates in the U.K. to look to see what we can do to promote and develop Action Learning in Ireland.  (For general background see www.actionlearningassociates.co.uk).  We are currently working with partners to develop a number of pilot projects and will be releasing further details of these soon.

It’s a fascinating question as to why ‘Action Learning’ has caught on less in Ireland than in the U.K. and many other places.  If you want to talk about what we can do to change this and to enable a depth of learning to happen that can begin to meet the depth of change we are experiencing, then please do get in touch.