The Future of Experiential Learning in Organizational Development: A Prophecy

Thirty years ago the first experiential learning groups (T-groups) were developed in the United States and Britain as a major educational innovation. The purpose was an attempt to utilise group process as a form of education, allowing business and community leaders, professionals, social service personnel and a host of others a chance to improve their leadership skills under an experimental atmosphere. Since that time, the use of experiential learning groups has expanded enormously and has spread into a whole host of educational and service occupations, changing in form and in style over the years. There are virtually dozens of different types of groups run today, with very little overlap in purpose and assumptions (Siroka, Siroka, and Schloss, 1971). Nonetheless, one of the major uses of experiential learning groups has been, and still is, their adaptation to organizational settings. From the very inception of the movement, they have been used as a means of teaching organizational personnel about leadership skills, communication patterns, group morale and other dimensions of organizational life in the hope that they will improve the ‘effectiveness in working within organizations’ (Bradford, Gibb and Benne, 1964; Cooper, 1972).