Marquardt brings together the six essential elements with realistic advice, practical wisdom, and such tools as checklists and a comprehensive glossary of terms. Readers can learn to leverage action learning to solve problems, develop employees, enhance personal growth, and create organizational learning.

Previous editions of this book established themselves as authoritative overviews of action learning practice around the globe. Given the increase in action learning activity since this book last appeared, the demand for an up-to-date edition has grown. Whilst chapters on action learning are now obligatory in every collection on leadership and management development, there is still no competing specialist work of this nature.

The burgeoning use of learning sets has generated many innovative uses for, and developments of action learning, which are detailed and explored in this practical, accessible book written for educators, trainers and developers.

Most managers today understand the value of building a learning organization. Their goal is to leverage knowledge and make it a key corporate asset, yet they remain uncertain about how best to get started. What they lack are guidelines and tools that transform abstract theory—the learning organization as an ideal—into hands-on implementation. For the first time in Learning in Action, David Garvin helps managers make the leap from theory to proven practice. Garvin argues that at the heart of organizational learning lies a set of processes that can be designed, deployed, and led. He starts by describing the basic steps in every learning process—acquiring, interpreting, and applying knowledge—then examines the critical challenges facing managers at each of these stages and the various ways the challenges can be met. Drawing on decades of scholarship and a wealth of examples from a wide range of fields, Garvin next introduces three modes of learning—intelligence gathering, experience, and experimentation—and shows how each mode is most effectively deployed. These approaches are brought to life in complete, richly detailed case studies of learning in action at organizations such as Xerox, L. L. Bean, the U. S. Army, and GE. The book concludes with a discussion of the leadership role that senior executives must play to make learning a day-to-day reality in their organizations.

Breakthrough Problem Solving with Action Learning explores why and how action learning groups have been so successful and creative in solving complex problems. The text begins by briefly reviewing the theories that undergird the effectiveness of action learning, philosophically situating readers and pointing them in the direction of related academic works that they may wish to explore. It then turns to stories of how organizations have employed action learning in solving specific, often-encountered business problems. These cases not only serve as real-world models for how action learning can be successfully employed, but also offer inspiration and potential starting points and guidelines for other businesses that face similar problems. The book concludes with a cross-case analysis that pinpoints the ingredients necessary for breakthrough problem solving via action learning.

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.