The pivotal and powerful role of the action learning coach

Action Learning is a group process design that was developed for the purpose of solving intractable human problems in organisations. Organisations large and small have successfully used action learning for a variety of purposes: to solve problems, to develop the organisation's learning capacity, to build teams, to promote personal development and to develop leadership skills (Marquardt, 1999). This article describes a qualitative study that used interviews with experienced action learning coaches to answer the research question: How do action-learning coaches create a climate conducive to learning? The findings indicate that action-learning coaches use themselves as instruments to help unfreeze participants' behaviour, introduce important changes and then refreeze behaviour at a higher and more effective level of functioning.