#alcp

Action Learning has emerged as a method of choice for global companies, government agencies, and non-profits that want to improve quality, cut costs, create new products and services, and change the culture of their organizations.

Companies as diverse as Microsoft, Samsung, Dow, GE, Deutsche Bank, Boeing, Sodexho, Novartis, Nokia and many others use Action Learning to solve complex problems, develop leaders, build teams and expand corporate capability.

Action Learning: a definition

Action Learning is an approach to solving real problems that involves taking action and reflecting upon the results. The learning that results helps improve the problem-solving process as well as the solution the team develops. The action learning process includes:

A real problem that is important, critical, and usually complex.

A diverse problem-solving team or "set"

A process that promotes curiosity, inquiry, and reflection.

A requirement that talk be converted into action and, ultimately, a solution.

And a commitment to learning.

In many, but not all, forms of action learning, a coach is included and is responsible for promoting and facilitating learning as well as encouraging the team to be self-managing. In addition, individuals, teams and organizations can apply to other situations the learning acquired by working on complex, critical and urgent problems that have no current acceptable solutions. The theory of action learning and the epistemological position were developed originally by Reg Revans (1982) who applied the method to support organisational and business development, problem solving and improvement.

Action Learning has many educational applications. Because it has been proven to be very effective in developing a number of individual leadership and team problem solving skills (Leonard and Marquardt, 2010), it has been used extensively as a component in corporate and organizational leadership development programs. As complex problems require many skills, individual team members can develop a customized learning agenda for themselves. This strategy is quite different from the "one size fits all" curriculum that is characteristic of many training and development programs.

Benefits of Action Learning

This type of problem solving enhances business performance at all levels by rapidly solving urgent and important problems and business challenges. It achieves a substantial return on Investment (ROI) on organization improvement projects. In management, it allows to establish effective succession planning by developing highly qualified candidates for promotion to executive leadership positions. By doing this, leaders are more strategic in goal setting and this develops a culture of staff engagement, involvement and performance. It is a new way of learning and knowledge sharing inside the organization.

Action Learning helps to dramatically enhance team performance, by developing positive, mutually respectful working relationships with co-workers at all organizational levels. Employees improve individual and team problem-solving and decision-making capabilities. These capabilities include reflecting on and learning from collective experience and the awareness in the context of multi-cultural diverse teams. The continuing monitoring of the action learning allows making effective and efficient planning and evaluations.

Individually, Action Learning enhances personal effectiveness and productivity, to contemplate and learn from individual and team experience. It improves personal leadership and soft skills. It helps to develop self-confidence and assertiveness, to expand awareness of how assumptions, beliefs, attitudes and organizational interests influence thinking, decisions and actions. It also allows developing Emotional Intelligence (EI): self-awareness, others' awareness and adaptability. Finding the courage to speak up and encouraging others to do the same.

A link between Companies and Business Schools

Today, many Business Schools invite companies to participate in projects of action learning.  Within their MBAs, they offer their students the chance to form working groups within their field of study and solve tangible problems that real companies are facing nowadays.  By doing this, scholars have the opportunity to hold a real world working experience, and organizations profit by having young, talented and innovative people solving their difficulties at a very low cost, saving a lot of money and generating large amounts of benefits.

This is not only beneficial in solving a particular problem, but giving both businesses and students the possibility of an interaction in which scholars demonstrate their capabilities so the company can see, in a real life practice, the skills and success of the work of a person who after obtaining the MBA could become part of their flanks.

Successful examples of Action Learning Projects

ESADE Business School provides an excellent example of this type of projects in practice. For more than two years Dr. Simon Dolan holds within its chair, Future of Work, an Action Learning Consultancy Project.

The modality of the assignment is that students form groups of 5 participants, according to the area of interest and knowledge, and choose three of several projects offered. Then, rendering to the different choices and possibilities, each group is assigned a challenge (problem). The interesting thing about this kind of practice is that students never know, throughout the project, for which company they are solving the problem.

Following the guidelines of Reg Revans of Action Learning, the company offers students a tutor or coach who will accompany and guide them in every step of the assignment. Scholars shall be presenting weekly reports on their progress, and have the problem solved in a maximum of three months, where its production is evaluated.

The success of these experiences in previous years has been resounding, both for businesses and students, many of whom were hired by companies who had worked on solving the problem. This year a total of 30 large companies and more than 100 students will participate in this project.

Also, for this year’s project, a new software platform is being used: Telanto, an Enterprise Social Network. Telanto is the perfect tool for this kind of projects as it allows users to work on the challenge within the platform. Each student has his/her own profile from which he/she can interact with other group members, sharing knowledge, assigning and performing tasks, and together solving the challenge. It also allows the coach to follow the students’ progress all along the project. Teachers can make weekly and final evaluations within the software to follow the learning process.

Conclusion

The novelty for this edition is the insertion of the Telanto technology into the project, a top-notch software platform tool to help both parts - students and companies – connect, engage and share information in real time in a smart seamless manner and on the cloud. Telanto technology will make the whole operation much more effective and productive compared to the former tedious exposure to confusing document mislaying across tons of e-mails and the sort.

The ALCP is a hands-on applied learning program experience with two editions per year, each lasting three months; the beauty of it is the fact it links Education - through the learning experience -and the Workplace - by solving real world challenges.

 The Action Learning Program includes six components:

A Project, challenge, task orproblem: challenges provided by companies can be in any functional area

Teams of 4-5 “self-defined” students

Reflective questioning andlistening

Creating solutions and takingaction

A commitment to learning

Actions Learning coach 

The benefits for the students reside in obtaining 3 credits, a unique learning method, the consulting, getting to solve a real life challenge and a net for their future, which brings satisfied students with good placement rankings and an entrepreneurship/innovation focus.  On the other hand, companies also benefit from the formula by obtaining the fresh ‘out of the box’ solutions, practical outcomes, experience diversity and access to TOP International talent.

In this version there are 54 students of 22 nationalities participating, 70% Male and 30% female, out of which 43% come from Economics & Management, 37% Engineering, 7% Humanities and Social Sciences, 7% Sciences and 6% from other specialties.

The ALCP process involves different stages or steps, combined with in-class workshops and followed up and led by three coaches, to whom students need to deliver milestones during the whole project and up until the concluding presentation.

Just after the kick-off performance, students hold a first meeting within their group to get to know each other by introducing themselves and explaining their background and the motivation for participating in the project; this is followed by company introduction, providing relevant information together with detail to the challenges and the expected output definition; and finally, coordination meetings are organised as well as any other arrangements relevant to the process. 

Currently, the preparatory courses are taking place (18th – 6th March, approx.) and on the 2nd of March students should be presenting their first proposal to their clients.  Meanwhile, we wish them all a great experience!

"There. In the sky. Can you see it, Britt?" the excited voice of a young girl sang from the kitchen. Brittany was sitting by the fire with a large mug of eggnog in her hands. She stood up as fast as she ever had done before, spilling the contents of her mug over the fur carpet she was sat on. "What is it?!" she called out in reply to her sister, pretty much sprinting over to the kitchen and wrapping her arms around the younger girl and hoisting her up onto her shoulders. The smaller blonde pointed out of the window towards a small owl that was making its way towards their house. Straight away, Brittany knew what the owl was carrying, and she suddenly couldn't contain the excitement that rushed through her. 

The sisters watched as the owl approached and perched itself on the window sill of the kitchen window. It was a fairly large owl, very pretty looking and well groomed, and attached to its foot was a rather large parcel. "Santana." the older blonde girl whispered under her breath, only causing a weird look from the younger girl that was still on her shoulders, "Santana is an owl now?" Brittany couldn't help but chuckle and squeezed the calves of her sister, shaking her head a little. She lifted her sister off of her shoulders and kissed her forehead and with that, the little girl ran off to play with the toys she had got for Christmas.

Brittany slowly approached the owl , her hands out stretched and opened the steamed up window to let it in. The cold, December air hit her when the window opened and the owl hoped inside the room. She watched with wide eyes as it stretched its wings and shook itself of the snow, then she carefully unattached the  parcel from its claw. Despite its size, the parcel actually wasn't that heavy and it was somewhat squishy. Brittany's face creased into a frown as she wondered what on Earth was in it. Giving the owl a few treats that she had in the kitchen cupboard, she whistled for it to hop up onto her shoulder and made her way back into the living to sit by the fire. 

It took her literally a couple of seconds to rip open the paper on the parcel; far too excited to wait any longer. Just as Santana said, there was three presents for her in there and three presents that she was so happy to see. The first thing that caught her eye out of the three of them, was a small box that was wrapped up individually  She gasped a little, picking up the box and ripping open the paper again. Just the box was beautiful, so she knew the thing inside it was going to be just as beautiful. And it was. A beautiful, glistening silver ring. Brittany couldn't help the single tear that fell from her eye, when she took it out and saw that there was a message engraved in it; 'I will always love you.' Santana always said that to her, and to have those words on a ring, just made Brittany's heart skip a few beats. She slipped it on the ring finger of her left hand and just looked at it, smiling from ear to ear as she examined it. "Perfect."

Brittany pulled out the other gifts, smiling just as wide. There was a blanket and a pillow. The message on the blanket warmed her heart; 'When I'm not here to keep you warm.' Santana always was somewhat sappy when it came to Brittany and she loved her for it more than anything. Wrapping the blanket around herself, she grinned at the picture of a duck on the pillow and position it by the fire. She shuffled down a little, and laid her head against her. The owl, that was now soaking up the warmth of the fire, tweeted and rubbed its head against the blonde girls face. "Hey.." she whispered, opening her eyes to look at the beautiful bird, "Thanks for these." The owl tilted its head, then closed its eyes and nudged its head against Brittany's face again, only causing her to giggle from the tickling feeling. 

There was a moment of silence. Brittany and the owl just lay there, (the owl sat, obviously) taking in the warm, flicking flames from the fire to keep warm. Brittany suddenly sat up, startling the owl and Lord Tubbington that was sitting on the recliner by the fire, just watching the owl. She apologised to them both, then rushed to her feet and ran over to the desk in the corner of the room. Opening the top draw, she pulled out a pen from the container and took out a piece of paper from the draw. She sat back down by the fire and bit her lip in concentration  as she began to write on the paper;

Dear Santana,

Happy Christmas, honey. I hope you're having a nice day, even if you are all alone in a scary neighbourhood. I got your owl, he's really pretty, just like you. and I gave him some snacks in return. We're sitting by the fire right now, snuggled up in the blanket you got me. I love it. I hope you love my gifts as much as I love yours. The ring is really beautiful, Santana, and it's my favourite. 

I have to admit that it was kind of weird waking up without you this morning. Remember last Christmas, when we were too excited to sleep, so we stayed up all night just talking? I miss that. 

I don't really know what else to write. One thing, I wish you were here. I miss you already. Enjoy the rest of your day, Santana.

Love, 

Brittany x