Right from the start

‘If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.’ (Albert Einstein)

Action Learning is a powerful way to explore an issue, formulate a solution and enable personal?agency?to act and influence change. It can also be used effectively to enable a group with shared interests or concerns to work on and address an issue?together. The first step in this latter approach often entails helping a group to formulate its own question or hypothesis at the outset, a bit like when conducting?action research, to establish appropriate focus and boundaries.

As a facilitator, we can invite the group to reflect on criteria and wider considerations as it performs this initial task. Here are some examples: a. In relation to this issue, who are they key stakeholders in the?system? b. Do we have the right people in the room to address this issue? c. Is it feasible to make useful progress on the issue in the time we have available? d. Are there any?ethical,?intersectional,?reflexive?or?relational?issues we should pay attention to in how we do this?

Sometimes, I notice that one or more participants may have an?intuitive?awareness, a feeling or a hunch that something is, say, anxiety-provoking, challenging or stuck in their?system, yet they may struggle to articulate it. In that case, I may invite them to, for instance,?draw a picture, tell a story or enact a stance?to help surface whatever issues lay beneath for them. Then, we return to the process outlined above to reach clarity and agreement, as a group, before we move forward.