Trident LED402 module 4 case +slp and discussion August 2018

Module 4 - Background

ACTION LEARNING

Required Material

First, start out with these short animated videos that gives you an overview of action learning:

Action learning. (2014). Learning Series. NGO Learning Centre, Liverpool, Australia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRnw1MguS6o:

McLuckie, R. (2014). Action learning. WIAL Global, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpLheyQV4Es:

This is the probably the toughest topic of this class so make sure to take some time to carefully go through all of the readings. The following book chapter will give you a general overview of action learning and is a good place to start:

 

Passmore, J. (2011). Chapter 3: Action learning supervision for coaches. Supervision in Coaching: Supervision, Ethics, and Continuous Professional Development.London: Kogan Page. [EBSCO eBook Collection]


 

Now read up on action learning in much more detail in these following readings:

 

 Pedler, M., & Abbott, C. (2013). Chapter 1: Action learning: Its origins and principles. Facilitating Action Learning: A Practitioner's Guide. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education. [EBSCO eBook Collection]

 

 

 

Marquardt, M. J. (2004). Chapter 8: Introducing, implementing, and sustaining action learning. Optimizing the Power of Action Learning: Solving Problems and Building Leaders in Real Time. Yarmouth, ME, USA: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. [Ebrary]

Action learning is one of the tougher topics of this module, so if you are still have some difficulty with the concepts you may want to take a look at some of the optional materials below.

Optional Material

Clifford, J., & Thorpe, S. (2007). Chapter 4: Learning and development methods. Workplace Learning & Development: Delivering Competitive Advantage for Your Organization. London: Kogan Page, pp. 29-32. [eBook Academic Collection. Note: You don’t have to read the whole chapter, just the section on action learning]

Sethi, B. (2014) Action learning for executive coaching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If2cxABYLNo:

Peters, M. (2013). Accomplish two for one with action learning. T + D, 67(2), 52-57. [ProQuest]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Module 4 - Case

ACTION LEARNING

Case Assignment

Before starting on this assignment make sure to go through the background materials carefully and go through the main textbook readings. Also, reflect carefully upon your Module 1-3 Case Assignments and think about some major areas that you would like to improve upon for your own leadership development based on the self-assessments you have done so far in this class.

Once you have reviewed the background materials and gained a solid understanding about the main steps and challenges of action learning, write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following questions:

1. Since this is your last Case Assignment for the class, start out this assignment by reflecting on what you have found in your Module 1-3 Case Assignments. Based on your prior assignments and what you have learned so far, what do you think are some of the main areas you and/or some of the coworkers that you have written about should try to improve upon? 
2. Now turn to Chapter 1 of Pedler and Abbot (2013) and pages 41-42 of Passmore (2011) where the potential benefits of action learning is discussed. Based on your answer to Question 1 above and from these two readings, what would you hope to improve upon using an action learning program? Do you think action learning would help you improve in these areas? Explain your reasoning both with respect to the readings and the areas for improvement in your leadership that you have identified so far in this class.
3. Go to the “Organizational Readiness for Action Learning” quiz on pages 43-44 of Pedler and Abbot (2013). Fill it out and report your results. Overall what does the quiz say about your organization’s readiness to engage in an action learning program?  Do you agree with the results?  What kind of challenges do you think you would face in setting up an action learning program at your organization?
4. Finally, take a look at pages 37-38 of Passmore (2011) and Chapter 8 of Marquardt (2004), which give step-by-step guidelines on setting up an action learning program. Based on your answers to Questions 1-3, how would you design an action learning program in your workplace? Include in your answer what kind of problem your set would work on, who you would include in your set, how often you think the group should meet, and other relevant steps outlined in the required readings. Explain the reasoning for your choices and what kind of outcomes you would hope to get out of this experience.

Assignment Expectations

• Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials
• List supporting references and cite sources in proper format
• Use appropriate writing style in essay form (organization, grammar, and spelling).
• Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations.

 

 

Module 4 - SLP

ACTION LEARNING

For this assignment, pretend that you are a leadership development coach assigned to help some organizations fix their action learning programs. For each of the scenarios below, explain what you think went wrong and how it could be fixed based on what you have learned about action learning in the background readings. For each of the three scenarios, explain your diagnosis and use at least one citation from the required readings to support your diagnosis. Your paper should be two to three pages in length:

1. A group of 20 from different departments from within an organization is put together to form an action learning set. At their meetings, every person is allowed to present and receive feedback from other set members and their coach. At first they are allowed to present and receive feedback for a half hour each but group members become exhausted from 10 hour meetings. Then this time is cut to 5 minutes per person but group members feel they are unable to learn or get adequate feedback from their coach and other group members in this amount of time.
2. A CEO picks an important problem for an action learning group consisting of five senior managers. The group meets every month for a full day for nine months. After nine months, each group member feels that they have learned a lot from receiving feedback every month and has improved several areas of their leadership skills. The group presents to the CEO a detailed plan along with steps they have already taken to help solve the problem and the results they have seen. But the CEO is upset because they didn’t come up with the solution the wanted and orders the group out of his office.
3. A group of several managers is put together to form an action learning set. The group members are very motivated to start this program and excited about the possibilities for developing their skills. The facilitator for the action learning program is a top assistant to the CEO. During group meetings, team members are reluctant to discuss difficulties they are facing in their tasks. Whenever a team member gives a presentation, they tend to only discuss positive experiences and they never criticize the organization.

SLP Assignment Expectations

• Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials
• List supporting references and cite sources in proper format
• Use appropriate writing style in essay form (organization, grammar, and spelling).
• Include both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13-14 on in-text citations.

 

 

 Discussion: Action Learning Gurus

 

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In the background materials you viewed two short animated videos that helped introduce you to the basics of action learning. For this discussion take a look at some more “serious” videos from some of the leading authorities on action learning.

Reg Revans is one of the early founders of action learning and his videos tend to be extremely serious in tone. Several of his classic videos are available on YouTube. More recent videos are also available by Michael Marquardt, another leading authority on action learning and author of one of the required background readings. Take a look at some videos from both of these action learning experts and share the links to couple videos that you found the most interesting or at least kept you awake.

What are your overall impressions of Drs. Marquardt and Revans? Which one seemed to be more authoritative or better at explaining the concepts? Anything useful in the presentations that helped you learn or absorb the concepts covered in the required background materials? Or did you just have trouble staying awake? Let your classmates know what your recommendations are regarding these videos. This post should be in the first week of the module.

For the second week of the module, compare and contrast the reading from Dr. Marquardt listed in the background readings to one of his videos.  Is his written style similar to his speaking style?  Was the material in the video and book chapter consistent with each other?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self-Reflection

 

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You have already done a lot of self-reflection as part of your assignments this session, but now it is time to “reflect on your reflections.” Now that the class is almost over, carefully consider the following issues:

1. What concepts from the class do you think were most useful to your own leadership development goals?
2. After this class what steps are you planning to take to further develop your leadership skills? Any additional concepts you plan on reading up on, or any steps at your current job that you might take?