Action learning

Action learning is a process in which a group of people come together regularly to help each other learn from their experience. 

Rather than beginning with an expert who supplies a predetermined answer, action learning begins with the experience, knowledge and questions of the participants themselves. 

It creates a disciplined space in which people can examine a difficult problem, test assumptions, consider alternative ways of understanding it and decide what action to take. 

An action learning set is a small, stable group of people engaged in action learning, to work on real organisational problems from their professional roles.

When a Tavistock Institute consultant facilitates each set, we can help participants move beyond the most obvious explanation for a difficulty — not only "what should I do?" but "what may be happening here, and what is this telling us about the organisation?" 

Action learning connects thinking with doing. It is not a training course or a discussion group: its purpose is to make progress on genuine organisational challenges while building the capacity of individuals, teams and organisations to learn from experience as they go.

The iterative cycles of planning, acting, observing and reflecting help to surface and address the hidden dynamics that often hinder change: the unspoken tensions, defensive routines and anxieties about uncertainty.

Action learning arose from the work of Reg Revans, who developed the approach to learning in Britain during the 1940s while working in the coal industry, where Eric Trist — a founding figure at the Tavistock Institute — was also active. 

The Tavistock Institute has extended this tradition, drawing on action research, group relations and systems psychodynamics, bringing our distinctive attention to the relationships, emotions and unconscious processes at play in organisational life.

Action research is a broader blend of inquiry and intervention, grounded in organisational learning and practical application to surface and address the hidden dynamics that often hinder change.

The contributions of theorists like Susan Long, Isabel Menzies Lyth, Gordon Lawrence, and Eric Miller have enriched the action research field, offering innovative methods for understanding and transforming organisations.