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ACTION LEARNING
Action learning revolves around the concept that people learn by doing. Emphasis is placed on creative thinking, trying new approaches and evaluating results. Action learning generally works best for a relatively small group of five to eight people who share common issues, goals and/or learning needs. It also works well when the issues are of a fairly narrow focus; it is not recommended for large, complex task-oriented projects.
The group, called an "action learning set," works to resolve issues and achieve goals together, meeting regularly to reflect on progress, issues and solutions, and how to proceed.
These are the steps for action learning:
Identify Tasks and Learning Opportunities
- Determine the objectives that the group wants to accomplish.
- Determine the development needs of the individuals involved and of the action learning set.
- Choose a facilitator to keep the group on track and draw out key learning points.
- Determine how often the group will meet and establish ground rules.
- Identify subject matter experts who are available to collaborate with or offer guidance to the group (CoP). (A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of employees with a common interest or working practice that solve problems and issues through an informal network that includes knowledge experts.)
Plan Together
- Plan a start-up workshop to develop learning plans both for individuals and for the group.
- Identify objectives for the action learning sets.
- Identify short-term and continuous objectives actions needed
- Identify opportunities to apply new ideas and learning points.
- Keep a learning log to capture key learning and progress.
Do
- Determine the time needed to work on the tasks.
- Determine time to allow for testing new approaches and new ideas.
- Note and log how effective new approaches and ideas are.
Reflect
- Set regular sessions for the action learning set meet to reflect on the progress they have made on their work issues.
- Use these sessions to explore new ways of addressing problems and planning what to do next.
- Encourage members to bring up individual as well as group issues, and work together as a group to think about and explore these issues.
- Update all learning logs to reflect the issues explored and resolutions discussed during the session.
Share
- Share the knowledge, skills and experiences with other members of the CoP (if applicable) or other individuals and teams that may benefit from the findings.
- Determine how the findings contribute to the knowledge base of the organization.
- Incorporate objectives, conclusions and recommendations of the action learning set (as well as experts who were consulted) into the organization knowledge base and skill sets.
Close Out
- Review the progress made and whether or not all of the objectives were met.
- Be prepared to share individual comments concerning what methods either worked or did not work during the action learning set process (lessons learned).
Used by permission. Department of the NAVY Knowledge Management
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