This set of resources has been curated to support your programme of action learning.

In this 2nd module on this subject, we pick up from the introduction lessons and explore more sophisticated facilitation ideas to bring depth to your peer-to-peer coaching and action learning skills – with a focus on extending your intervention skills, and building dialogic collaboration.

Drawing on leading-edge materials, it aims to:

• Develop your skills participating in, and leading action learning groups.
• Build your confidence to start facilitating groups of your own.

More detail on each of the lessons

Peer Action Learning and Support Groups - intermediate

This lesson builds on the structures and processes introduced in the first course, and offers some new ideas for group reflective process and structure, to bring variety and depth to your facilitation choices.

Introduction to facilitation

This lesson explores the nature of the role of facilitator - or the activity of facilitation if you are a leader seeking to increase your facilitation competence when working with your teams and groups.

We will explore the different types of role, contract and activities that might be demanded of you when you are facilitating others.

You can apply this in everyday meetings, as well as workshops, events or in peer learning groups (for example).

Mastering a broad range of interventions

When we are coaching - in any context - we are using a broad range of "moves" within a conversation.

At our worst, we are simply suiting ourselves and our comfortable practices - at our BEST we are constantly adjusting and noticing what is needed to support the progression of the other, the learner.

This lesson explores how we come to make those judgements, and offers a model of a broad range of different "push" and "pull" interventions a coach, leader, facilitator can use, to assist in the development process.  It also enables you to self-assess against this model, and request feedback from others.

Trust and trust-building

Here we return to the nature of trust itself, but this time concentrating at the social level of teams and groups, and how leaders can start to deploy a new set of behaviours to build a culture which supports high trust and learning.

Again, building on the latest scientific and social research, and over 20 years of our own practice, we offer you proven techniques and tips to enhance your team’s culture, recapture the excitement and spirit of collaborative mutuality, learning and experimentation.

Dialogue and generativity

This lesson explores the nature of dialogic interaction - the process through which joint meaning emerges, collaboration is at its best, and adaptation is most vibrant.

We will look at how patterns unfold between us and others - leading to more or less accountability, more or less adult-adult (or parent-child) dynamics, leading to safe, resilient cultures (or conversely, cultures dominated by wilful blindness and failure to speak up.

With practical processes to enable you to develop your skills and exercises to extend your self awareness and confidence.

What drives top team performance?

This lesson explores and integrates a range of the latest research and pragmatic ideas for enhancing the flow and performance of a team. 

Drawing on the work of Daniel Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, Anders Ericsson and Margaret Heffernan (amongst others) it connects these leading researchers' ideas to the practical experimentation in companies like Google (the Aristotle project).

With helpful tips for leaders and facilitators - you will discover how to create a culture of high performance, which is also learningful and human.

Group development and maturation

Of course, we have all heard of the famous Tuckman model - Forming, Norming, Storming and Performing.  This lesson takes this model, along with several others (including those drawing on Eastern, not exclusively Western traditions) and brings them together into a practical guide for the team coach, leader or facilitator to use to understand maturation process.

It offers a handy guide to the activities of the leader-facilitator at different points or experiences of group maturity.

Frequently asked questions