IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/alresp/v12y2015i1p22-36.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the causal path between action, learning, and solutions: maximizing the power of action learning to achieve great results

Author

Listed:
  • H. Skipton Leonard

Abstract

Clients and practitioners alike are often confused about the ultimate purpose of action learning (AL). Because of the title of the method, many believe the primary goal of AL is to generate learning. This article clarifies the relationship between action, learning, and solutions. It also provides historical evidence to support the conclusion that the first purpose of AL has been, and should be, achieving effective and creative solutions to complex, critical, and urgent problems. The power of AL to develop leadership skills is explained and a useful problem-solving mental model, the cycle of effective problem-solving, is presented. The cycle can be used by the coach to generate questions that encourage teams to reflect on its problem-solving process and thereby promote the learning that will improve the team's performance and lead to higher solution quality. Several examples are provided to illustrate how the cycle of effective problem-solving can be used.

Suggested Citation

  • H. Skipton Leonard, 2015. "Understanding the causal path between action, learning, and solutions: maximizing the power of action learning to achieve great results," Action Learning: Research and Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 22-36, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:alresp:v:12:y:2015:i:1:p:22-36
    DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2014.977222
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14767333.2014.977222
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14767333.2014.977222?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:alresp:v:12:y:2015:i:1:p:22-36. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CALR20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.