For many young professionals who started their undergraduate programmes between September 2019 and September 2021, the Covid lockdowns disrupted important opportunities for face-to-face learning and connection. Action Learning Sets can provide a supportive environment in which to develop the relational and reflective skills required in modern workplaces.

University is about more than the subject you study. It is also where you learn to live independently, build relationships with people from diverse backgrounds and work with people whose perspectives differ from your own — skills that are invaluable in the workplace. Alongside that comes the academic learning: exploring a subject in depth, weighing different perspectives from research and forming your own view based on evidence. Going to university is a big life moment and a huge investment in both kinds of learning.

But what happens when much of that university experience takes place online? For the graduates discussed here, university meant accessing learning through a computer, potentially from their childhood bedrooms. This reduced their opportunities to practise and refine some of the interpersonal skills that face-to-face study can help develop before entering the workplace.

My experience and tremendous privilege of facilitating an Action Learning Set (ALS) for seven incredibly bright graduate management trainees from Finance, HR, Informatics and General Management showed how an action-learning environment can help to bridge some of that gap.

How do Action Learning Sets work?

In an Action Learning Set (ALS), one person brings a situation or challenge to explore. This person is the ‘airtime holder’. The other members ask questions to help them reflect, examine different perspectives and think through their options, rather than offer solutions. The learning comes from practising how to listen, question and make space for others to think. Typically airtime holders learn just as much through the line of questioning helping them come to one or more actions to take forward, as the rest of the set gain through questioning and observing the airtime holder’s processing.

Our Action Learning Sets were always face-to-face — an important contrast with the virtual learning this group had experienced. The Sets supplemented their learning about leadership. All seven had started university in September 2019 and, when we first met, were still processing that disruption while beginning another programme with a substantial virtual-study component.

The group comprised five fairly extroverted members and two fairly introverted members. To begin with, some set members spoke over the ‘airtime holder’, keen to get their question in next. The rapid pace reduced reflection time for the airtime holder and made it harder for quieter members to contribute — patterns that, in the workplace, can fuel conflict or prevent innovative ideas from being heard. We used a range of different approaches to provide a structure to the sessions to help encourage a slower pace and space for reflection, which members reported finding helpful.

At first, the group were very keen to try and “help” by solving problems for the airtime holder. Yet the airtime holder is the expert in their own situation and context; the value of action learning lies in helping them examine their options from different perspectives so that they come away with actions they can try. By naming this distinction and gently challenging the group when they moved into advice-giving, I helped members become more aware of their approach without leaving them feeling chastened.

After several Sets, I invited the group to reflect on how they were learning together: what they were noticing, what was working well and how effectively they were challenging one another. Members said that the Set felt safe and that they were comfortable challenging each other, while also recognising that asking open questions was a skill they still needed to develop. I then asked them to place the group on a scale from advice-giving to constructive stretch and challenge, and to identify where they wanted to be. This gave them a shared way to assess and adjust their approach.

Advice ⟵ ⟶ Stretch

At our fifth Set, I introduced a different exercise. I asked members to use sticky notes to describe what leadership meant to them and the kinds of leaders they wanted to become. After placing the notes on the wall, they explored points of commonality and difference, and considered how curiosity, diversity and difference shaped their approaches to leadership. Finally, I asked how they experienced one another within the ALS and how the topics we had explored were contributing to their leadership development.

During the Sets, we also explored what members noticed about one another’s body language, particularly the visual cues they used to manage their eagerness to contribute. In the safe space we had created together, they could practise noticing others, regulating their own responses and making room for different voices — important aspects of emotional intelligence that were much harder to develop in a virtual setting.

By Session 8, members were taking turns in the facilitator role, with occasional nudges and support from me rather than relying on me to lead. They sought my reassurance or confirmation far less often. Over our time together, they had developed the ability to facilitate discussion, reflection and exploration while balancing patience with emotional intelligence so that everyone could benefit. Most importantly, all seven reported feeling more confident and better able to work effectively and collaboratively in their workplaces.

This experience highlighted three conditions that made the Set effective:

  • a clear process that protected thinking time
  • a facilitator willing to challenge unhelpful habits without shaming the group
  • regular reflection on how members were learning together.

For organisations supporting emerging leaders, Action Learning Sets can therefore offer more than a forum for solving problems: they can provide a structured place to practise inclusive, reflective leadership.

Could Action Learning Sets help your emerging leaders listen more deeply, think more independently and collaborate more effectively?

If you would like to explore whether Action Learning Sets could strengthen your organisation’s leadership development, get in touch with Louise for a free introductory conversation about your goals and context.