CENTER FOR SCHOOL REDESIGN ~ A Division of The Ruebling Group, LLC

Action Learning for Leaders

Action Learning is a group technique for both individual and organizational development. It is a process of experiential learning. Following a session (usually face-to-face) to get acquainted and learn the techniques/process, groups of four to six leaders from the same level (i.e., peers) participate in monthly telephone sessions one hour long. The group can be all from the same school district, or from different school districts.

At each session, one member is the “focus member.” That individual brings a problem, ”bottleneck,” to the session and describes it to the group. Through a series of structured questioning processes by the other members of the group, the bottleneck is clarified and the focus member is helped to develop an action plan to break through the bottleneck. The focal member then commits to implementing the action plan and reporting the results to the group at the next meeting. The focus member is rotated through all the members of the group as the monthly phone meetings proceed. If the monthly sessions are extended to 90 minutes, it is possible to have two focus members for each session.

Action Learning has proved to be a very powerful peer-to-peer learning process that improves individual skills, overcomes obstacles, and leads to increased results.

Contact us at The Center for School Redesign™ to discuss starting an Action Learning Group is your school district or with your colleagues in other school district.