Book Review

ABSTRACT This account explores the experience of an action inquiry approach to develop a coaching culture within a public service organisation. We position action inquiry as a fresh interpretation of action learning that draws on a variety of roots and traditions and focuses on the nurturing of the collective capacity to lead through everyday interactions. Working with an initial core group of staff, we expanded our reach through an iterative process to intentionally bring more people into the work. We show how we adapted our original plans to respond to the COVID pandemic, the use of stories to propel inquiry and playback insights into the inquiry process, how we deepened inquiry in some settings and how ultimately being online was an opportunity to connect people across a system that we had not anticipated. We share insights into the commissioning process and of the importance of internal sponsorship. It concludes with a striking, participant-led call to approach scaling differently by supporting the co-creation of local implementation strategies and sponsor confidence in the case to use this approach in more circumstances, where participants in action inquiry explore, rather than assume, what the organisation and its staff need.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size AcknowledgementThanks to John Edmonstone and Mike Pedler for comments that enriched this review.

The four accounts of practice (AoPs) that follow are written during the ambiguous and uncertain period occasioned by the Covid-19 Pandemic and three of the accounts were presented at the ALRP Actio...

ABSTRACT As Action Learning has evolved, it has been adapted to promote learning in various contexts. In this account of practice, we share our perspectives as facilitators of the application of action learning principles within Reflective Practice Forums for Mentoring and Coaching Programme Managers. The ethos of action learning was adopted with the forums to enable the programme managers to engage in regular reflections of their current practices and ongoing professional development. In our assessment of the application of action learning principles and processes within the Reflective Practice Forums, we consider the connections between action learning, communities of practice and supervision frameworks to examine and present the ‘ethos’ of Action Learning within the forums.

The book is, as it explains quite clearly in the title, a presentation of a large number of techniques that can be used in coaching supervision, each one showcased and explained by a practitioner i...

ABSTRACT This article explores how P (programmed learning) in Revans’ formula L=P + Q accumulates from one action learning research initiative to another. Drawing on three inter-organizational action learning research initiatives, it shows how the L (learning) from conducting action learning in an initiative in one network built new P on network action learning research which was applied in two subsequent initiatives. The article contributes an understanding of how P accumulates from learning initiative to learning initiative and how its application contributes to the L of actionable knowledge.