Last week, I worked with inspiring human rights activists from countries as diverse as: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States.
We met in Ethiopia and the goals were: vision-casting, relationship-building and insights-sharing. As part of the event, we used a variation of a technique called ‘world café’. The idea was to stimulate round-table conversations focused on topics of interest, enabling participants to grapple with real issues and challenges and to learn from hearing the questions, experiences and ideas of others.
It had some similarities with what Action Learning Associates (ALA) calls ‘peer consultancy’. The peer consultancy approach draws on the conventional action learning methodology of posing questions for critical reflection, then creates a pause part-way through for peers to share what they might do if they were in the presenter’s situation, before handing back to her or him to decide an action.
As the facilitator, I found the cross-cultural dynamics particularly interesting. In some cultures, for instance, a person may find it disrespectful to pose a question before being invited explicitly to do so. In others, a person may feel compelled, out of respect, to agree with whomever in the group they regard as holding authority, based on, for example, age, gender or hierarchical status.
(Nick Wright, Director, Action Learning Associates)
If you’d like to develop your own action learning facilitation skills including use of the peer consultancy approach outlined above, see our website for forthcoming training opportunities. If you’d be interested to learn more about using action learning with cross-cultural groups, have a glance at this ALA webinar by Directors Ruth Cook and Nick Wright.
