It was wonderful to be with action learning colleagues again at the International Action Learning Conference at the York Business School last week. This was the 8th conference and the first to be held after the pandemic so a gap of 3 years. I have attended these conferences since the very first one and always enjoyed the intersection of academics and practitioners, no longer feeling as we did at the beginning that there were ‘two sides’ in the action learning world.
It was an opportunity to connect with colleagues from around the world with speakers and participants from the USA, Canada, Germany, Catalonia, Ireland, Norway and South Africa. The theme of the conference was innovation and action learning.
We had an inspiring Keynote speech from Professor Kiran Trehancalling for us to put the action back into action learning and reminding us of our shared purpose. She talked of the power of action learning to disrupt and ask the awkward questions, and also urged us not to forget that the root of Reg Revan’s work was in system change. She challenged us to pay attention to equality and inequalityin action learning and asked whether action learning could be the way of developing new and diverse leaders. Her challenge, which resonates strongly with me was to ask, “What difference are we making in the world?” and her address included Tracy Chapman and this quote from Leonard Cohen“There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
The valuable learning for me came from hearing about different ways of working using action learning methodology. I was challenged by Dr Ghislaine Caulat’s research into power dynamics in the virtual space and belief in the value of turning the camera off in virtual action learning. I will read more about this.
I experienced the integration of creative approaches in action learning using postcards, rich pictures or creating object sculpts. I appreciated that these approaches can generate new ways of seeing issues and have the potential to engage head, heart and hands.
I was inspired by the accounts of work with deeply traumatised young people in South Africa. I will never forget that a young guy from the localNGO in South Africa described himself as a “sewer rat”.
I was challenged by the account of action learning in the Basque Country where the purpose was to improve listening to citizens, so it included joint sets of politicians and civil servants to examine the organisational problems facing the community.
The choice of workshops was often difficult – I couldn’t attend them all! But each workshop or lecture is written up as an account of practice or a research paper in forthcoming editions of our journal ‘Action Learning and Practice’ published by Taylor & Francis.
