What can action learning offer a beleaguered system? A narrative representing the relationship

Abstract

Purpose This is an attempt to write an account of action learning that is as close to the ground on which it was practised as the author can make it. In that sense, the reader can read what follows below as a kind of autoethnography, a "representation as relationship" as Gergen and Gergen (2002, p. 11) call it. This is because in the opportunity of telling a story about his practice as an action learning facilitator, the author hopes to evoke that which is more akin to the contactful environment of quality action learning than any amount of abstract theorising. Design/methodology/approach This is an example of "narrative inquiry", best judged, according to Sparkes (2002), in terms of the ability of such accounts to "contribute to sociological understanding in ways that, amongst others are self-knowing, self-respecting, self-sacrificing and self-luminous". Findings As the author re-tells this partial account, he has a sense of the massive wider structures around him, but all he can see in his dim lamp is the fleeting glimpse of the local strata. The author traces his hand along the seams, not intending to dig them out, but simply to witness them, or even, in a spirit of yearning, to give them a witnessing of themselves. Originality/value To the author, this is about portraying what action learning feels like, rather than thinks like, for his own and for the benefit of other practitioners.

Line managers and employees use of lean task boards in Norwegian municipal healthcare sector: a tool for action learning?

“…Thus, the employee-driven processes reduce “hassle and annoyance” and improve routines and effectiveness and, as such, create more stable work conditions in single units, as was also found by Radnor and Walley (2008) and Benders et al (2019a). The findings support the argument by Traeger (2017) and Ballé and Régnier (2007) that setting aside time for line managers and employees to talk about their problems and to use their experience also creates the potential for improvement in beleaguered systems.…”

“…Individuals can also work together with change proposals to improve their actions in the organisation (Pedler and Abbott, 2008). Action learning in healthcare demands space and time for collective reflective learning between managers and employees (Traeger, 2017). Lean uses the participants’ actions and experience as a starting point, and learning from these processes can be a method that promotes action learning in the organisation.…”

Toward Co-productive Learning? The Exchange Network as Experimental Space

“…Instead, meetings make use of Argyris' ladder of inference and other tools to identify how established institutional habits may define participants' responses to each other and to loosen the grip of such habits so that participants may develop a capacity for open listening. In some forms of critical action learning, an interrogation of institutional habits can extend to an interrogation of organizational priorities and an understanding of how these may be shaped by and contribute to the perpetuation of wider socio-political inequalities (Marsick and O'Neil, 1999;Rigg and Trehan, 2004;Traeger, 2017). This level of criticality is not explicitly spelled out during EXN meetings, yet the insistence on forging relational literacy through an interrogation of institutional habits also entails an interrogation of how healthcare professional habits may marginalize lay or service user knowledge.…”

Work-life enablers for job satisfaction in healthcare: moderating role of organization type

“…Sometimes, individuals collaborate to strengthen their efforts in the organization (Pedler and Abbott, 2008). Specifically, in the health-care sector, action learning requires space and time for learning (Traeger, 2017). This study uses the resident doctors' actions and experiences to learn while dealing with various crises, for instance, the enormous load of COVID-19 affected patients.…”