ABSTRACT
We have so far tried to define what action learning is supposed to be, mainly by listing the elements of which one will become aware on getting involved in it – as well as by presenting the prime idea as the figure at the end of Chapter 1. But any reference to these elements:
1. the Characteristic Assumptions of Action Learning;
2. Essential Logistics;
3. the Characteristics of the Manager;
4. the Influences of Top Management; and
5. the Philosophy of Action Learning;
has generally been met by those coming across action learning as a topic of conversation, who themselves have not yet seen it in reality, with a spontaneous rejection, generally expressed in a torrent of academic analogy…
Action learning? You mean learning by doing? What’s new about that? We’ve got it all; what’s more, we’ve had it all for donkey’s years! There’s nothing new for us in learning by doing! …
And there will follow much supporting argument from the headings below. These have been prepared to show what action learning may be confused with, no doubt, but what, nevertheless, is not action learning. All this, and a lot more, about an idea first put forward in 1945.
