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Project leader
Dr Andy Wilson, Director of Capability Enhancement, Loughborough University
Steering group members
Andy Wilson (Loughborough), Andy Mee and Jo Bruce (UEA), plus members of the pilot set (see below)
Project's administrative home
Loughborough University
Overview
This project will investigate the use of web-based technologies to allow people to participate in action learning sets from their own desktops. It will then generate and share guidance – on both the technological and facilitational aspects – across the sector. Discussion of the concept has already generated considerable interest.
Rationale
This is a sectoral as well as an institutional initiative. Leaders of some seniority benefit from action learning sets that involve members from other institutions. These cross-institutional gatherings can be hard to organise.
Aim
To allow more people to participate in action learning sets.
Objectives
A description of the proposed methodology including how the project will be tested in practice
This proposal arises from a session at the Cardiff conference. An initial test set, using software based at UEA, has already been run very satisfactorily. This set is continuing and it is anticipated that it will be drawn on for informal advice and guidance.
The project will involve several stages of activity:
It will be technically very easy for participants to engage with the project. There are no software costs. All the software sits at UEA or Loughborough and is accessed over the web. All that participants need to provide is a computer with a webcam and headset (costing around £25) and their time.
Capability to deliver the project
UEA staff have a strong reputation for supporting innovative practice with e-learning and Andy Mee has been active in developing the SDF website. He thus combines a secure technical grasp with a wide awareness of national staff and organisational development issues.
Andy Wilson was a member of the earlier DALEK team and has been running regional action learning sets for HoDs for five years. He has also run sets within: his own institution, an LGM Research Leaders Project, and an 1994 Group programme. He has provided training in action learning facilitation for the Roberts Midlands Hub, the Staff Development Forum, and individual institutions. He also led the e Staff Development Project.
Outputs
Guidance on:
A group of up to 20 staff across a number of key national bodies trained in running desktop action learning.
Outcomes
More effective leadership across the sector following the exposure of more people to action learning.
Action learning is now seen as one of the most powerful aids to development; set members often comment on the unique experience that sets offer. Action learning is widely used across the sector, especially in relation to leadership development.
Its major drawbacks are the time and travel commitments required of the set members. Attempts to establish sets within the 1994 Group and MASHEIN, for instance, have faced serious difficulties for these reasons.
If effective ways can be found to run desktop action learning sets then the impact of these problems will be greatly reduced. The benefits will be:
The first of the sets that we have already run provides a clear indication of some of the benefits. On a snowy day in January we ran a set that would never have happened face-to-face on that day because of the weather. Moreover, it saved over 1000 miles of travel and over 20 hours of travel time.
These benefits can be felt widely across the sector. The initial target groups will be national bodies where members wish to work together in action learning sets. Examples of such groups are shown below. Those in bold have already expressed a desire to be involved in the pilot set; some have nominated more than one participant.
And the value of the outputs will not be restricted to action learning sets. Other meetings could be run on the same basis. Discussions of this approach within the 1994 Group of ODers have already begun to change the way meetings are organised.
There are also many staff groups – such as administrators, PGRs, early career researchers – who find it hard to travel for developmental activities but who would benefit from engagement with people from other institutions. We can therefore contemplate extending the model to these groups.
Milestones (quarterly)
The project does not neatly fit with quarterly milestones. The detailed timing is shown in the Gantt chart (Section 14) but the major milestones are:
Action Learning – An Overview
"Action learning is a continuous process of learning and reflection, supported by colleagues, with an intention of getting things done."
Beaty & McGill, 2001, p11.
Action Learning is an approach to the enhancement of understanding and skills that enables a group of peers to support an individual's development. It is about helping and being helped.
Action Learning Sets meet every four or five weeks – for four or five times – to discuss real issues that members of the set are facing in their working lives. Within each set meeting all members will have a slot, lasting about 45 minutes, during which their issue is considered. A member will present his or her issue and its context; the other members of the set then help the presenter to clarify the issue and to develop ways of addressing it. This one-at-a-time focus on the presenter's issue helps them to identify actions; these will be implemented, and the process and its consequences are then discussed at the next meeting.
The issue or problem must be one of substance so that it can be addressed over a period of time. It should not be a "puzzle", ie something where there is a correct answer that just needs to be discovered.
The emphasis is on learning about action in real – and often powerful – situations. The discussions within the set must therefore be completely confidential to the set.
In addition to helping the issue-holder to address their issue, the process also gives the other set members valuable insights into other people's situations, and the opportunity to develop their own skills in clarifying, reflecting and questioning.
Set members are not uncritical supporters of the presenter, their role is to challenge assumptions, to help the presenter check out reality, etc. It is not to provide counselling, though the skills of being an effective set member do overlap with those of the counsellor, …and those of the manager, and the colleague, and the coach, and the mentor, and the critical friend...
The role of the set facilitator is:
The approach will be more one of engagement than dissemination in that interested parties will be encouraged to participate through distributed approaches and then to roll-out these approaches within their own organisations and their own practice.
There will be formal dissemination processes – on the web, at conferences, etc – but the main mode will be dissemination by involvement.
Specific engagement/dissemination activities that can be identified include:
Links to other projects
This project is a descendant of the successful and influential DALEK project, also on action learning. It has potential links – which will be explored – to other LF projects such as the aSynchronous facilitation project.
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