My working life has been shaped by action learning, well at least from the age of 29. I still remember the day clearly. I’d taken a head of department role in a publishing company, transferring from an operations role in petrochemicals. It’s not the most obvious career direction I know, but they were looking for someone from outside the industry to drive forward an efficiency and effectiveness program. I persuaded the directors that I was their man, and I was in.
Early in my tenure one of my editors asked me if I’d heard of Reg Revans and action learning. I hadn’t. She was completing an in-company MBA. I was completing a conventional one at the time. Long story short, I was intrigued. I led an in-house action learning program for my department (badly), and became hooked.
Action learning is a dynamic and participatory approach to problem-solving and learning that emphasizes collaboration, reflection, and action to address real-world challenges. By bringing together diverse stakeholders to tackle complex issues through iterative cycles of action and reflection, action learning fosters community development by empowering individuals, building capacity, and promoting sustainable change.
I’ll share its origins, applications, and role of action learning in community development. My initial exposure to action learning was all corporate and in-organization. Using it to help community development is an intensely rewarding experience. I’ll also share some examples of communities that have successfully employed this approach, the challenges they faced, and the outcomes achieved.
Origins of Action Learning
Some background to the concept to start with.
Action learning was pioneered by Reg Revans in the 1940s, rooted in his observations of organizational challenges in the British coal industry and healthcare sector. Revans, a British physicist and management theorist, recognized that traditional top-down approaches often failed to address complex, adaptive problems. He proposed that learning occurs most effectively when individuals work collaboratively on real problems, combining action with critical reflection.
Revans’ foundational principle, often summarized as L = P + Q (Learning = Programmed Knowledge + Questioning Insight), emphasizes the importance of questioning assumptions and generating new insights through practical experience (Revans, 1980).
Action learning draws from adult learning theories, including constructivism and experiential learning, which highlight the value of learning through experience and social interaction (Zuber-Skerritt et al., 2020). Over time, action learning has evolved, incorporating influences from participatory action research (PAR) and organizational learning theories, such as those by Chris Argyris and Donald Schön, which emphasize double-loop learning to challenge underlying assumptions (Argyris, 1995).
Today, action learning is applied across diverse contexts, including business, education, healthcare, and community development, as a method to foster collaborative problem-solving and capacity building.
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