Understand the problem before defending the solution.

Action Learning brings a small group together around a real problem. The group questions, listens, acts — and learns at the same time about the problem, itself and the way it works.

Try the session Bring a problem

The principle

The stated problem is often only the starting point.

Action Learning relies on insightful questioning and reflective listening. The group does not begin by stacking up solutions: it first clarifies the exact nature of the problem, considers what it can actually influence, and then acts.

The value is not only in the decision made. It is also in what the group learns about how it thinks, listens, decides and cooperates.

The Action Learning model

Six components. One system.

A problem

Real, urgent and important. It should deserve the group’s time and not already have an obvious answer available.

A group

Usually four to eight people, diverse enough for the problem to be seen from several angles.

Questions & listening

Questioning and reflective listening clarify the problem, build dialogue and open up new ways of seeing it.

Action

The group must be able to act on the problem, or be connected to those who have the authority to do so.

A commitment to learning

Solving the problem matters. Learning to solve the next ones better matters just as much.

A coach

The coach helps the group reflect on what it is learning and how it works, without taking ownership of the problem.

The two rules

Very few rules. A strong effect.

Statements come only in response to a question.

Anyone can ask a question of any other participant. This constraint slows the rush to solutions and pushes the group to explore what it does not yet understand.

The coach may intervene when an opportunity for learning appears.

The intervention focuses on the process: listening, participation, assumptions, quality of questions, cooperation or the way decisions are made.

The coach’s role

Protect the process without becoming the problem consultant.

The coach is not there to provide a technical diagnosis. The coach helps the group maintain the discipline of questioning and turn what happens in the session into explicit learning.

The coach may pause the work to ask, for example, what the group is learning about how it operates, what helps or prevents progress, or what has just changed in its understanding of the problem.

Important. The coach protects the method. The group remains responsible for the content, the problem and the actions.

A session

From the stated problem to action.

Present

The problem owner briefly presents the situation and what they want from the session.

Question

The group explores, tests assumptions and brings missing information or perspectives into view.

Reframe

The group checks that it is working on the right problem before moving too quickly to solutions.

Act & learn

Actions are assigned and the group makes explicit what it has learned about the way it works.

Start

Bring a problem that really matters.

One session is enough to see whether the method fits your organisation.

Describe the problem