ABSTRACT
Anxiety is an integral part of being a set member and can contribute to both the success and failure of sets. Since action learning is open-ended, unpredictable and emergent, anxiety is probably endemic. All professional staff working in statutory and voluntary agencies, particularly those delivering human services, also suffer from anxiety because of the discretionary nature of much of their work. One way of dealing with anxiety is the tendency, especially in work settings, to seek sanctuary in views of experts. Managerial initiatives from 1980s onwards have served to increase and bolster the potential defence mechanisms in play to deal with inherent anxiety of working in healthcare. The value of action learning set is that it provides a holding and enabling framework – a transitional space – in which set members' sometimes powerful and frightening anxieties can be faced, comprehended and worked – although with the appropriate balance of support and challenge from the other set members and the facilitator.
