Table Of ContentAction Learning in Health,
Social and Community Care
Action Learning in Health,
Social and Community Care
Principles, Practices and Resources
John Edmonstone
CRC Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Edmonstone, John, author.
Title: Action learning in health, social and community care / John Edmonstone,
Director, MTDS Consultancy, Honorary Senior Research Fellow,
School of Public Policy & Professional Practice, Keele University, UK.
Description: Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, [2018] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017016740| ISBN 9781138035591 (paperback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138099579 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315266701 (ebook : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Health services administration. | Learning.
Classification: LCC RA971 .E328 2018 | DDC 362.1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017016740
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
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and the CRC Press Web site at
http://www.crcpress.com
Contents
Foreword vii
Who should read this book? xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Author xv
Introduction xvii
PArt 1 PrINCIPLES 1
1 What is action learning and what is it for? 3
2 How does action learning differ from other development approaches? 17
3 Action learning as ethos and method 23
4 The benefits of action learning 41
PArt 2 PrACtICE 53
5 Preparing for action learning 55
6 Action learning sets 71
7 The energy investment model and action learning 85
8 The key skills 91
9 Supporting, recording, ending 101
10 Dealing with anxiety in action learning 107
11 Facilitating action learning sets 113
12 Systemic learning: Action learning organisation-wide 121
13 Evaluating action learning 129
14 Postscript: Action learning as reflective activism 139
PArt 3 rESOUrCES 143
15 What resource tools are available to help me in working in action learning? 145
Index 191
v
Foreword
I am delighted to be invited to write a foreword for this new book by John Edmonstone. A
copy of John’s earlier book, Action Learning in Healthcare: A Practical Handbook (2011) sits
proudly on the shelves of both my home and work offices, ready for me to return to when-
ever I need inspiration, information and/or resources. My personal involvement with action
learning spans being a set member, a facilitator, and an evaluator, and as one of the founding
members of the Revans Academy of Action Learning at Alliance Manchester Business School,
I have had the opportunity to examine action learning PhDs and to organise a range of semi-
nars and workshops on the subject. More than 13 years after my first encounter with action
learning, as a tool for individual and organisational learning within the NHS, the subject still
excites, intrigues and reassures me and I have found in John Edmonstone’s work the support,
challenge and reassurance that I need in my task of seeking to inspire, and support, students,
facilitators and sceptics of action learning.
The title of John’s new work Action Learning in Health, Social and Community Care:
Principles, Practices and Resources aptly encapsulates how and why this text has evolved. Its
expansion to include social and community care reflects the changing context of health care
today and the new emphasis upon working across organisational and professional boundaries,
with a call for new innovations in commissioning to support the integration of services and the
introduction of new models of care, such as Vanguard sites, devolution and multi-speciality
care providers, in order to enhance quality and to manage costs. This need for health, social
and community care to work together brings with it new challenges, new anxieties and new
uncertainties. Yet a context such as this also provides opportunities. The very nature of action
learning allows it to foster connection across organisational and personal boundaries and to
facilitate the space to think, to reflect, to question and thereby to learn. This book provides
an opportune resource which can enable us to develop the knowledge, skills and capability to
seize these opportunities. It will therefore provide an essential resource for educators, com-
missioners, managers, OD practitioners, action learning facilitators, set members and anyone
with the desire to learn.
Part 1 of this book provides a thorough explanation and discussion of the underlying prin-
ciples of action learning. This section begins with a useful exposition of action learning prin-
ciples, deftly weaving both its theoretical underpinnings and its practice to provide a secure
grounding in the subject for those new to action learning, those wishing to deepen their
understanding or those who, like me, are constantly seeking new insights. While there are
many excellent introductions to the subject of action learning, where this text differs is in its
consideration of the type of learning required for the current and specific challenges of health,
social and community care and in its exploration of how action learning might support both
vii
viii Foreword
individuals and organisations in confronting these. Following on from this in-depth introduc-
tion, the author takes us on a journey to explore how action learning differs from other devel-
opment approaches, providing some excellent insights into the nature of learning itself. There
is both a complexity and simplicity to these insights, enabling them to simultaneously support
and intrigue those seeking to learn and/or to facilitate the learning of others. With the context
now set, the book moves on to consider action learning as an ethos and a method, providing
a pertinent explanation of its values and ways in which action learning has evolved to keep up
with the changing context. This includes a very informative description of two increasingly
popular forms of action learning – critical and virtual action learning, what they mean and
how they can be utilised. Part 1 concludes with a description of the benefits of action learning,
supplemented with examples of its use within health, social and community care and a consid-
eration of how it operates across a wide range of different contexts and cultures.
With a firm grounding in the principles, types and benefits of action learning provided by
Part 1, Part 2 goes on to provide a guide to the practice of action learning, taking the reader
through a life-history of the action learning process, from initial preparation, right through to
endings and evaluation.
Action learning, as a process of questioning and challenge, can pose a threat to the status
quo and anyone who faces some resultant trepidation at embarking on its use will find help-
ful the section on assessing whether the organisation and its culture are prepared, can pro-
vide reassurance and an antidote to possible learning casualties, thus enabling practitioners
of action learning to ‘rock the boat’ without being thrown out of it! This section also includes
a comprehensive guide to the roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders in action
learning and an essential practical guide to its components. A very practical useful part of this
section is the provision of practical tips and resources, such as where to meet, how often and
for how long, how to get the set started and how to manage the process of the set.
A requisite skill in working within any set is the ability to work with a variety of unique
individuals. A way of understanding the contribution of participants to the set’s working is
provided in Part 2, through the introduction of the ‘energy investment model’, a model devised
by the author to explain the contribution of participant’s personal energy and attitudes to the
set’s working. This model provides an excellent resource for understanding both enablers, and
potential disablers, within the set and will prove of immense value to set members and facilita-
tors alike.
The practical focus of Part 2 of the book continues with a comprehensive introduction to
the key skills of action learning and includes, for example, skills of active listening, effective
questioning, reflection and feedback. The important, yet often neglected, skills of supporting,
recording and ending the action learning set are also included, along with a highly practical
explanation of various appropriate diagnostics and support mechanisms and their pros and
cons.
A constant attendant in work in health, social and community care is anxiety. Despite being
rarely discussed in texts relating to action learning, it is a frequent ‘participant’ and can have
a profound impact upon the success of any learning endeavour. Its inclusion within this text
is very welcome therefore, providing the reader with an explanation of the possible causes and
manifestations of anxiety, as well as a guide which will enable the action learning practitioner
to use anxiety as a tool for learning and to prevent it from becoming a learning saboteur.
In addition to this useful guide to understanding and managing anxiety as part of the learn-
ing process – a skill essential for any action learning facilitator – this book provides a compre-
hensive guide to all of the skills and qualities required by facilitators. This guide, coupled with
Foreword ix
resources to support the facilitator’s development, and the means to avoid potential pitfalls,
will be of immense practical value to any current or would-be facilitator.
Another key component in Part 2 of the book is the guide to the challenging subject of
enabling organisational learning. In his approach to this highly contested topic, John reviews
aspects discussed earlier in the text, in addition to insights from some of the major writers in
the field of action learning, thereby equipping the reader with the capacity to support organ-
isational development and learning.
One of the aspects of this part of the book, which makes it so very valuable to anyone
interested in action learning, is the author’s commitment to subjects often avoided in con-
siderations of action learning. Evaluation is one such elusive topic and so I was delighted to
find a guide to this practice provided through a discussion of the challenges involved, and the
presentation of useful questions to support the evaluation process. With this resource, readers
will be able to provide the evidence for the value of action learning in practice.
This practical part of the book concludes with a postscript which discusses action learning
as ‘reflective activism’, a stance which entails reflection, active engagement in the workplace
and the constant review of personal and contextual values, assumptions and practice. In this
part, as in earlier ones, the discussion is of use not only to those interested in action learning
but to anyone interested in the topic of learning per se.
Following this section on the practice of action learning, Part 3 of the book provides an
extended toolkit of resources, which together with the extensive bibliography and examples
utilised throughout the text, are sufficient to provide anyone interested in action learning with
the confidence to succeed in its implementation.
What I love about John’s books is how the author’s drive to make a positive difference to
individuals, organisations and society, jumps off the page, touching the reader and igniting
their belief in their own power to do the same. I would like to conclude with a passage from the
author’s postscript in which this is particularly potent:
In the current times of increased inequality and insecurity in the larger society,
there is a strong sense of powerlessness abroad – a belief that nothing can be
done to change the situation which people find themselves in. Action learning
is the antithesis of this belief….in that it helps people to take an active orienta-
tion towards life in general and to overcome this dominant tendency to think,
feel and be passive towards the pressures of life, … rather to embrace the
opportunities and challenges of organisational and social change.
Dr Elaine Clark
Senior Lecturer in Action Learning and Healthcare Management
Programme Director, BSc Management/BSc Management Specialisms
Alliance Manchester Business School
University of Manchester
