An Action Learning Failure in a Dutch Municipality (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Between the 1950s and his death in 2003, action learning was promoted by the British astrophysicist Reg Revans as a problem-solving and learning approach for organizations that face complex, strategic problems with no obvious solutions (Revans, 1971, 1982, 1998). By analyzing these problems in a team of approximately six members with different backgrounds over a couple of months, possible solutions are to be found. Simultaneously, team members will learn (Weinstein, 2002). Learning is achieved by critical questioning and through reflecting and providing feedback on action taken by individual team members, as well as by the team as a whole (Kolb, 1984; Revans, 1982). Often, a facilitator or learning coach is installed to oversee the group process (Wallace, 1990; Weinstein, 2002). In addition, sponsors (senior organizational members who are ready to act on behalf of a team should this be needed), and clients (organizational members who are committed to do something about a problem) are usually installed as well (Revans, 1998). Although action learning looks simple, (Mumford 1995) argues it is much more complex than the above description suggests. It has been developed in profit-oriented, business settings (Revans, 1971), although applications in nonprofit, NGO and community development settings can be found as well (Boshyk, 2000, 2002).