• Home
  • WIAL Action Learning

As an Action Learning Coach how would you handle the following situation:

One team member begins to make fun of one point the group is discussing. Initially, this is creative and brings happiness to the group. Then this joking is repeated sequentially among team members … a competition emerges to come up with the most creative joke. The group looses concentration and focus on the problem they are suppose to be working on …. They are primarily focused on clowning with each other!

The team in a single problem action learning set asks questions to the sponsor (the boss), and in addition to just answering the question, the sponsor talks about the context, history, options, ideas for solutions … and this even when the question asked was a closed one … Even if the team members become aware of this, they struggle – in particular in a high power distance (respect for authority) – to do anything about it. How would you as a coach intervene ?