Action Learning Tools

The following are descriptions of some tools typically used in Acton Learning projects. These particular tools help teams approach their projects systematically, helping them address their own assumptions about how their organizations function. A number of these tools also help teams manage their internal relationships, helping them develop management skills they will be able to use in their own organizations.

Creating Team Structures

When an Action Learning team is forming, it is critical for the team to consider its members’ roles and expectations. This tool is meant to facilitate these conversations within a team as it begins to decide on its structure, leadership, and norms. A sample of this tool is available in pdf format.

Role Negotiation

After an Action Learning group’s team structure has been established, it may be necessary to alter particular dynamics to adjust to changing conditions. Role Negotiation provides a structural method for people to address the issues of power and influence when attempting to negotiate specific changes in each other’s behavior in a mutually satisfying way. Individuals exchange messages with each other, outlining the behavior that he or she views as helping or hindering his or her own productivity in the team. After discussing and clarifying this feedback, pairs can negotiate agreements based on an equitable trade-off.

Responsibility Charting

As Action Learning teams become more complex, the quality of inter-unit relationships often deteriorates. It is not clear which groups or people are involved in specific decisions or in what ways they are involved. Responsibility Charting is a structured process for surfacing different perceptions and jointly negotiating clear agreements. These agreements and the process of achieving them can improve accountability, effective delegation, and communications.

Problem Mapping

As an Action Learning team begins a project they must carefully identify the problem they are trying to address in their organization. Problems are always embedded in a web of multiple sources and potential outcomes, each with several contingent implications for action. Problem Mapping is a relatively simple process that allows Action Learning teams to precisely specify these relationships between causes and effects to pinpoint areas of intervention.

PCAN

PCAN is a framework to help an Action Learning team to develop and refine its problem statement and objectives. PCAN stands for Problem, Cause, Answer, and Net Benefits. A consideration of each of these aspects helps teams develop a more nuanced understanding of the issue they want to address. The charging memorandum addresses the first step of PCAN and provides prompts to discuss how to go from a vague idea of a problem a team might want to address in its organization, to a well thought-out diagnosis.

A sample of this tool is available in pdf format.

Stakeholder Mapping

All organizations are influenced by internal and external stakeholders. Stakeholder Mapping is a technique to assess the potential impact of all stakeholders on a set of organizational objectives, or a specific plan of action. This tool allows Action Learning teams to identify groups inside and outside their organizations with the potential to affect organizational objectives and to develop strategies to manage relationships with these groups.