Action-trends and practices from the world of practitioners
Action Learning at Work: 3 Perspectives
How does Action Learning work? To understand this, consider perspectives from these 3 diverse domains
Art, Craft and Trade - Lynda Gratton Professor of management practice at London Business School, in her column featured in MIT Sloan Management Review refers to the findings of sociologist Richard Sennett who studied how mastery is achieved in an art, craft or trade. Sennett observed master craftsmen such as glassblowers, potters, painters and musicians and concluded that their advancement is through three distinct stages: apprentice, journeyman, and master. They make this progression or advancement through close observation of a master, repetition, and continual feedback. Practitioners of art forms, like glass blowing, even today tend to believe that their progress towards mastery is attributable to things like “practice and repetition”, “watching a master” and “getting tough feedback” which follow the Action Learning cycle of - Knowing (through observation) -> Testing through action -> Reflecting on how one did -> Learning
Science, Business and Writing – Insights published by Kellogg School of Management, based on research by Kellogg faculty Yian Yin, Yang Wang, James Evans, Dashun Wang allude to the process adopted by achievers whose stories began in failures. They specifically refer to Henry Ford went bankrupt before starting the Ford Motor Company; Thomas Edison and his colleagues who tested thousands of materials before creating the carbon-filament lightbulb and J. K. Rowling who received twelve rejections before the first Harry Potter book was published. What accounted for their ability to stay resilient, bounce back and succeed? According to Kellogg faculty’s research it was their ability to “learn more” by incorporating more components of their failed attempts into their later attempts. This is a living demonstration of a key Action Learning Principle – Reflection for continuous improvement
Sales – Harvard Business School faculty Frank V Cespedes in his book Sales Management That Works points out that salespeople learn by doing as they accumulate a base of experiences across buying contexts. The outstanding among them categorize these experiences according to the selling situations in which they were encountered and use the learnings when similar situations arise. Cespedes calls this “adpative selling” But accumulating such wealth of experiences to draw upon for adaptive selling is the result of practising Action Learning, even if it is not done consciously. Says Cespedes: “In fact, there’s evidence that … positive or negative feedback loop from the environment …. actually reshapes neural pathways over time”
MIT’s motto captures the crux of Action Learning in just 3 words - “Mens et Manus” —Mind andHhand ‘Know it’. And ‘Do it’ to ‘learn it’!
“There can be no learning without action, and no action without learning”
– Reg Revans, regarded as the Father of Action Learning
Welcome to the 'New Mercuri Mail'.. The India Journal of Mercuri International!
This is the 'Go To Place Sales Newsletter and Journal' of the discerning Sales Community! Continuing its 35 year long tradition of sharing knowledge curated from the best of sales and management literature, here come interesting new features, all with an unwavering focus on making a difference!
Happy reading and reflecting!
Team Mercuri India
The India Journal of Mercuri International - SEP 2022
