Participating companies benefit from the action learning process through improved business performance by addressing an issue of high priority.
Projects are selected to address ‘wicked problems’. Wicked problems can be described as problems where high levels of uncertainty exist, high levels of collaboration across various parts of the organization are needed, and further learning and distributed leadership are required to achieve a resolution. Companies already implementing continuous improvement or mature management systems may find that more projects fall within this space as the ‘low hanging fruit’ was picked years ago. The action learning process provides a framework to address these types of problems.
Senior management has the opportunity to learn from other companies’ experiences and benefit from the fresh views of outsiders to the company. Action learning provides an opportunity to exchange ideas and share the learnings with a peer group across participating companies.
Ongoing benefits are derived from the enhanced competency of key employees, with formal recognition for that competency. Employees learn how to apply existing systems and processes to complex problems. Moreover, they learn how to seek information, direct their own learning and participate effectively in improvement processes in their workplace. This creates a pattern of action learning, which can be further developed and extended within the company.