Action Learning and Strategic Project

Several members of the RCL team have worked as action learning facilitators for more than twenty years. We know that Action Learning can deliver radical improvements, new thinking and personal development. It is not a sure-fire formula for success but one of the most powerful and reliable tools available.

A particularly powerful form of Action Learning is strategic project work. The process is simple but effective. A group of able up-and-coming managers are selected, given a tough strategic brief by a top manager, built into a team and given time and resources to produce recommendations. In order to get the project moving, a top manager says something like “I want a team to look at how we can double the capacity of our lighting business and treble margins in Europe. Your team has six weeks. I’ll listen to what you say. Go to it!”

As they undertake the strategic project, the participants are stretched, benefit from confronting feedback from colleagues, acquire interpersonal skills and the company receives policy proposals that would otherwise be unavailable. But, as the grandfather of Action Learning, Reg Revans was keen to point out, the essence of Action learning is action, not just analysis. The essence of Action Learning is that managers have to feel the results of their decisions not just pass proposals over to others.