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Relevant Principles
and Theories
It's important to understand the principles, or "values
in action", behind any major approach to development. One
reason that principles are so important is that they can quickly
depict the "personality" of the development approach.
Also, principles are important because they are the "guiding
light" around which the approach can be organized and modified,
if necessary.
You could ask 10 different Action Learning practitioners,
"What are the major principles behind the Action Learning
process?, and you'd probably get 10 different answers.
The following principles of Action Learning are those from
which Authenticity Consulting, LLC, designs and implements Action
Learning programs.
Note that to really appreciate the principles behind Action
Learning, it's useful to understand how those principles can
be used to address current, major problems in training and development.
To read about the issues, click here.
Then realize the mismatch between traditional one-shot training
sessions and the following principles of learning.
Principle #1: People learn best while
working on real-world problems.
Research in adult learning suggests that adults learn best
when
1) Applying new information or materials to current, real-life
challenges in their lives or workplaces, and
2) Exchanging feedback with others around those applications.
Adults can learn particularly by skillfully asking questions
(these are skills in inquiry) and skillfully answering questions
(these are skills in reflection) about their real-world experiences.
The hallmark of Action Learning is group members' asking and
answering useful questions.
Action Learning also involves members taking actions toward
their real-life goals between meetings. Members continue to take
actions and reflect on these actions, thereby generating tremendous
and transformational learning for themselves and often those
around them.
Principle #2: People learn best when they
share feedback with each other.
People are systems, just like organizations are systems. Systems
operate most effectively when they are open systems, that is,
when they are exchanging feedback with other systems. This is
true for all types of systems, for example, plants, families
or businesses. Therefore, people learn best when they consider
the questions, advice, opinions and values of others.
One can understand this principle when they consider the opposite
case, that is, when people are closed off, lost in their own
world of thought. Quite often, these people can "self implode"
without new insights and occasions to test their own insights
in the reality of day-to-day living.
The Action Learning process facilitates highly focused feedback
among group members.
Principle #3: People get stuck on perceptions,
values, feelings – not from lack of specific procedures.
The school of thought which perhaps best explains this principle
is that of systems thinking. Systems thinking, especially as
explained by Peter Senge in his seminal book, The Fifth Discipline,
is a way of viewing systems that helps the viewer to quickly
clarify underlying structures and patterns in systems -- thereby
enabling the viewer to more effectively understand and work with
that system (remember that organizations and people are systems)
. Senge described the "ladder of inference" from which
people make (sometimes erroneous) conclusions based on their
own misperceptions. (More about the "ladder of inference"
later on in the section Action Learning:
Some Related Theories.)
Action Learning is ideal for helping members to understand
their own perceptions (and often misperceptions) about their
current challenges in life and work.
Principle #4: Learning involves the whole
person.
People usually can't separate their hearts from their minds.
One of the most powerful ways to be reminded of this fact is
to experience an Action Learning group member who addresses a
major challenge first by being able to briefly clarify his or
her feelings about the challenge! The recent popularity of the
concept of emotional intelligence is clear recognition of the
critical role that emotions play in living and learning in today's
world.
In Action Learning, each member is given their own time in
each meeting in which to share description of the current issue
or goal that they are working on in their group. It's almost
always most effective if the member starts by briefly describing
how they feel about the issue. Members don't dwell on their feelings,
but they recognize that the more fully that fellow members understand
each other's goals (including how they feel about their goals),
the more effectively that members can be in helping each other.
Principle #5: Finding the right problem
is as important as solving it.
Quite often, one of the first things that new Action Learning
members realize is that, after several meetings, members are
rarely working on the same goal that they first brought to the
group. That's because help from fellow members has helped other
members to quickly get past their initial misperceptions and
on to addressing their real issues in their life or work.
The role of questioning is critical to the power of the Action
Learning and coaching processes. Giving advice is rarely as powerful
as asking useful questions. That's because advice usually deals
only with the least important needs. Advice can be quickly given
and quickly addressed. Powerful questions help each group member
to carefully reflect, to peel off each layer of understanding
until they're faced with understanding their most important --
and real -- problem at the moment.
Principle #6: The person with the problem
is the real expert on the problem.
This is often the hardest lesson for new Action Learning facilitators
and group members to learn. Quite often, members of new groups,
when hearing someone's goal, will quickly resort to telling that
person what they must do (akin to lecturing the person). Too
often, that person will write down each piece of advice and promise
to follow it. Soon, group members realize that the person either
didn't follow the advice or even if they did, they really didn't
learn anything from following the advice (remember: a
primary goal in Action Learning is doing -- and learning at the
same time). Eventually, members come to realize that unless a
member comes to realize on their own what their problem is, there
is little learning to be accomplished by that member.
Often the most powerful ways in which new facilitators and
members learn this critical principle is when they loudly proclaim
what another member's problem is and what the other member must
do about it -- only to learn later that what the new facilitators
and members thought was the other person's problem was not the
real problem at all!
In Case You're Interested in Theories
Related to Action Learning
The following link is to a variety of theories that help to
explain what were very likely early influences on the development
of Action Learning.
To return to Action Learning and Peer
Learning Programs
To return to Authenticity
Consulting, LLC
Note on intellectual property
- Authenticity Circles is a service mark of
Authenticity Consulting, LLC, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
© Copyright, 2000, Authenticity Consulting,
LLC
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