Action Learning

"Action Learning is ideally suited to helping individuals explore and take action regarding career options". (Marquardt)

Most managers spend more time doing than thinking. Many management-training courses spend more time on thinking than doing, emphasising the teaching of concept and theory. Action Learning, by focusing on doing and reviewing, suits most managers very well and, by providing them with opportunities to solve real problems in their own workplace and learn from that experience, helps them to improve their managerial performance and, in turn, can lead to increased profits.

The truth is that Action Learning is one of a number of effective management development techniques. It is particularly attractive to a great many managers while producing immediate and tangible dividends for their sponsoring organization through the project work, which is an intrinsic part of all IMCA programmes.

In Action Learning managers learn to take effective action by reviewing and interpreting their experience in order to identify what it is which they have learned.

A systematic approach to learning focused primarily on the dynamics of the manager's role and environment, rather than simply grasping random opportunities as and when they arise, ensures that managers learn much more efficiently. This can be achieved through Action Learning programmes, such as those offered by IMCA.

An IMCA program has four basic features:

• Projects or problems on which to work
• A group of "cohorts in adversity", with whom to interact, known as a "Set".
• Tutors to facilitate the learning process
• Flexibility to fit in with your own learning needs

Action Learning is a sociable activity, not something that you do on your own. It needs a group of people - whether they are physicists, construction foremen, bank managers or a mixture of all three : real managers, working on real problems in a real time-frame, looking for real solutions using Action Learning techniques.

  Action Learning Around the World 1964-2004