Management of action

learning

CMI LEVEL 5 COACHING AND MENTORING

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Contents The practice and operation of action learning against organizational objectives .................................. 2

The practice of action learning and the role of the manager ............................................................. 2

The benefits of action learning in the development of individuals .................................................... 2

The impact of action learning on organizational objectives ............................................................... 4

To facilitate learning through action learning ........................................................................................ 6

Mechanisms to monitor that the individuals is taking responsibility for their own decisions, actions

and learning approach ........................................................................................................................ 6

Practices to support individuals to elicit personal and organizational values .................................. 11

How individuals are motivated and encouraged to apply learning to practice ................................ 14

How the individual can be supported to maintain focus and alignment to organizational needs ... 17

The impact of action learning on organizational objectives ................................................................. 19

The use of action learning across programs of learning ................................................................... 19

The organizational objectives and the impact of action learning towards achievement ................. 21

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The practice and operation of action learning against organizational

objectives

The practice of action learning and the role of the manager In today’s competitive and ever-changing environment, organisations are more frequently, and

without notice, required to change at the drop of a hat and adapt at a moment’s notice or face their

demise.

No longer do organisations have the luxury of developing sustainable long-term business plans, nor

can they comfortably predict the future. They, in fact, face increasing pressure to please their

stakeholders and shareholders through positive market analysis, ethical undertakings and positive

returns on their investment.

Organisations therefore need to have in place highly skilled leaders that demonstrate strong

leadership, successfully guiding their teams through times of pressure and ever increasing changes.

What are the advantages and what is the importance of action learning and reflective practice to

improving project performance through leadership development?

Action learning pioneer Professor Reginald Revans states: “Adapt or die is today’s motto… when the

rate of change is faster than that of learning, the organism fails. And when the rate of learning is as

fast as (or faster than) that of change, the organism is likely to adapt, to survive and even to grow.”

To do this, an organisation must have implemented the correct leadership development programs

that are going to assist their project managers. Action learning through reflective practice is one of

the tools in which to do this.

There are, however, some barriers to implementing action learning. There is a real risk that leaders

will not be provided the support and time they need to undertake reflective practice and implement

real changes, as many managers place more value on action rather than reflection.

The benefits of action learning in the development of individuals Today, businesses, leaders and management face real and complex challenges. That's why many are

turning to Action Learning (AL), a practical, group-coaching methodology that can resolve these issues

– and enable individuals and organisations to thrive.

Businesses can become agile enough to respond quickly and effectively to rapid changes in

technology, the workforce and competition.

Leaders can break out of old-world silo thinking and develop new structures that will enable true

collaboration across the business.

Managers can develop and retain staff – and set and implement a successful strategic direction – all

in the face of reduced budgets and time.

Whether you need to develop your leaders, implement a new strategic direction or initiate cultural

change, we can adapt our Action Learning services to meet your precise needs.

Benefits of Action Learning include:

• increased effectiveness and profitability of your business

• improved problem solving and leadership capacity

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• greater adaptability and resilience

• individual and organisational learning from implementing new strategies or culture

change

• helps introduce or expand your approach to coaching

• supports skills development and behaviour change

• ssist succession planning by developing a cadre of highly qualified candidates for

promotion to executive leadership positions;

• Deepen participants' confidence in their leadership and team participation skills;

• Enable participants to establish effective, mutually respectful working relationships with

co-workers at all organisational levels;

• Develop competence among individuals and teams in problem-solving and decision-

making processes;

• Relate action research and action learning theories and methods to organisational

challenges;

• Enhance participants' capacity to reflect on and learn from their individual and collective

experience;

• Develop participants' awareness of how their implicit assumptions, beliefs, attitudes,

preferences, and organisational interests influence their thinking, decisions and actions;

• Increase competence in preparing and presenting recommendation concerning urgent

organisational issues to executive management.

Action Learning helps Individuals:

• Enhance personal effectiveness and productivity

• Reflect on and learn from individual experience

• Enhance personal leadership and soft skills

• Develop self-confidence and assertiveness

• Improve awareness of how assumptions, beliefs, attitudes and organisational interests

influence thinking, decisions and actions

• Develop Emotional Intelligence: self-awareness, others' awareness and adaptability

• Find the courage to speak up and encourage others to do the same

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Action Learning helps Teams:

• Dramatically enhance team performance

• Develop positive, mutually-respectful working relationships with co-workers at all

organisational levels

• Develop individual and team problem-solving and decision-making capability

• Enhance capability to reflect on and learn from collective experience

• Develop awareness in the context of multi-cultural diverse teams

• Continually monitor and enhance team functions

Action Learning helps Organisations:

• Enhance business performance at all levels

• Rapidly solve urgent important and business challenges

• Achieve a substantial Return on Investment (ROI) on organisation improvement projects

• Develop a culture of staff engagement, involvement and performance

• Establish effective succession planning by developing highly qualified candidates for

promotion to executive leadership positions

• Become a learning organisation

• Become more strategic in goal setting

The impact of action learning on organizational objectives The global workplace is increasingly complex and competitive, requiring multi-dimensional leadership

skills to manage the challenges faced. Those in leadership positions at whatever level, need to exude

positive direction, enabling and empowering their people to adapt in the face of change and adopt a

flexible, inquisitive approach to work.

In a successful organisation, staff seek and find elegant solutions to problems as a matter of course,

they thrive, collaborate, grow and make continuous progress.

Action learning enables leaders to develop those personal, intellectual and emotional skills to

question, reflect and embed the learning in the system.

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How action learning contributes to organisational development

In-house action learning programmes contribute to OD by providing a structured time to develop

reflective practice and critical thinking within your organisation. Reflective practice enables leaders to

become fluid at complex problem solving and to positively affect the culture of the organisation.

Action learning operates in the space where individual insight through reflective learning works to

impact the whole system.

Your organisation may be facing some of the following situations. If so, action learning can bring about

a direct positive impact on the outcomes and objectives you set for your organisation:

• Managing change – whether project based or continuous such as culture change

• Developing stakeholder engagement and partnership working

• Increasing the rate of learning in organisations and building learning communities

• Radically improving performance in work based projects with action learning as the

core approach to peers working together

• Developing leadership capacity and resilience integrating action learning into leadership

development programmes

• Working creatively with resistance to change by involving people as part of the solution

• Finding new ways of working and problem solving in peer groups which encourage double

loop learning

The business case for embedding action learning in organisational development

Skills learned during the action learning process cannot be un-learned. As participants learn from

personal experience, growth and managing real challenges in the workplace, they retain those skills

for use over and over again.

The individual change that happens in the reflective action learning space is embedded in the whole

system by leaders, and through their behaviour change, all tiers of management become involved in

positively changing the culture.

In short, embedding life-long reflective learning skills will deliver a sustained commitment to proactive

problem solving, influencing the culture shift across the whole organisation.

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To facilitate learning through action learning

Mechanisms to monitor that the individuals are taking responsibility for their own

decisions, actions and learning approach The Council has approved the Climate Strategy including a generic action plan. The Council resolution

provides legitimisation to implement programmes and projects and, thus, gives them a required

priority. Consequently, necessary financial resources for realising prioritised programmes and projects

will be earmarked for the Council’s budget. The administration now owns a solid mandate for entering

into implementation and progress from generic action planning to detailed planning and

implementation of individual projects. Measures earmarked in the generic action plan will turn into

fine-tuned project plans that include proper assignment of roles and responsibilities, planning of work-

flow and time, technical and spatial planning, project impact assessment, financing and resourcing, as

well as stakeholder involvement. Moreover, as all projects carried out need to contribute to the

implementation of the Climate Strategy and ultimately the Council’s target achievement, continuous

monitoring of progress forms an integrated part of the implementation phase oriented at preparing

the ground for appropriate evaluation of process and performance as well as targeted reporting in the

final stage of the management cycle.

This chapter guides you through implementation and monitoring issues such as schedules, budgets,

identification of funding sources, assignment of responsibility to staff, and methods for monitoring

progress. A checklist for this chapter is provided here.

REFINEMENT OF THE ACTION PLAN

The phase of implementation is particularly demanding in terms of organisation and coordination as

well as keeping an overview of implementing programmes, projects and measures and ensuring

progress in line with the targets agreed upon in the Climate Strategy. Whilst the generic action

plan serves as operational foundation for implementing the Council’s Climate Strategy, it needs

refinement e.g. in regard of assignment of tasks, allocation of resources, work- and time-planning of

individual actions.

Also, due to the usually cross-cutting nature of a Climate Strategy a number of different actors are

being involved and responsible for carrying out particular actions. The latter is of particular importance

as budgetary limitations as well as limits to competence and power will require contributions of all

parts of society to implementing appropriate and high-level performance climate change response. In

effect, a number of actors have to be involved cross-departmentally. In addition, private sector and

civil society actors will contribute to achieving the climate targets agreed. Hence, cooperation across

the administration as well as with various stakeholders that take responsibility for implementing

projects assures buy-in to the implementation process.

Refinement of the action plan is a two-tier exercise: the 1st tier involves the overall coordination of

the generic action plan, the 2nd tier the implementation of individual projects, thus, the step from an

action number in the generic action plan to a particular project.

1st Tier: Refinement and implementation of generic action plan:

The 1st tier remains in the immediate responsibility of the climate coordinator or task force. The scope

of activities will include the entire municipal territory and all areas of urban development addressed.

Activities involve the following steps:

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1. Assignment of roles & responsibilities

2. Communication and involvement strategy and staff training programme

3. Refined implementation plan including:

4. work- / time-plan for the implementation of the generic action plan

5. Allocation of resources / Planning overall finances

6. Programme impact assessment: estimating possible effects/side effects (environment,

economy, society, institution)

7. Action Plan implementation

8. Monitoring of Action Plan implementation

9. Documentation and status reporting

2nd Tier: Project implementation

The 2nd tier responsibility will be assigned to a project coordinator or team. It involves similar steps

as previously described above in the 1st tier. However, the scope of activities is limited to one

particular project and often even to one particular site. Tasks will therefore be more specifically

connected to a certain thematic area (e.g. transport, energy, or green infrastructure) and – by nature

– realising projects such as construction of buildings or infrastructure, installation of technologies,

raising awareness with specific target groups or alike:

Individual steps of project implementation employed will include:

1. Assignment of roles & responsibilities for project implementation

2. Project communication and involvement process

3. Project planning including

4. work- / time-plan, allocation of project resources / Planning project finances and assessing

risks, technical planning, project impact assessment: estimating possible effects/side

effects (environment, economy, society, institution)

5. Project implementation

6. Project monitoring: Measuring project impact

7. Project documentation and reporting

Examples for particular projects in European Cities are:

• Växjö – energy efficient heating and cooling

• Bremen – carbon responsible transport measure

ASSIGNMENT OF ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

A key part of effective implementation is assigning and defining management roles & responsibilities

for segments of the generic action plan as well as the individual project.

1st tier: It is a good idea, to share the overall coordination and responsibility with a small group of

thematically experienced persons. As an example, the city of Ludwigsburg, when implementing their

city development concept, organised responsibilities according to 14 topical areas, whereof 11

resulted from a participatory process involving more than 1,000 citizens. For each topical area, two

responsible ‘theme leaders’ have been assigned, one each from the administration and civil

society stakeholders. These theme leaders jointly oversee the implementation of the various projects

included in the specific thematic action plan. They are the ones to also communicate with coordinators

of individual projects in their topical area. Coordinated by the city’s Department for Sustainable

Development, the group of leaders of all themes form a task force responsible to steer the

implementation of the city development concept.

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2nd tier: Individual projects need thorough planning and coordination of technically experienced staff.

Responsibility usually is assigned to responsible departments with the appropriate persons being

selected for coordination. A special challenge for a local government’s Climate Strategy is to also

include projects of non-municipal actors. That practically means responsibility for these projects or

activities are completely outside the authority’s remit. Nevertheless, they might significantly

contribute to the Council’s climate response. In these cases, the instrument of implementation

partnerships might be an appropriate option to formalise responsibilities and collaboration between

private and public sector. Particularly UK-local governments, such as Birmingham, have made valuable

experiences with this instrument.

Next to roles & responsibilities defined by technical needs, further ones need to be considered that

reflect a local government’s hierarchy. The climate coordinator will not be authorative responsible for

implementing the Climate Strategy, but his superior and ultimately the Mayor. Approval of particular

activities – and more practically a signature - will remain with the immediate superior. However, it will

be important to consult also with other departments or actors or – depending on their level of

involvement – keep them informed. For both tiers, a consideration and mapping of these formal

requirements will be important for smooth implementation. A practical tool for keeping an overview

of the various roles and the level of involvement needed is offered by the RACI-tool. Whereas RACI is

focusing on formal requirements, a 2nd tool – the power-interest-grid – might help to organise the

wider communication and involvement needs and development of a communication strategy (see

section 4).

These assignments can now be specified in the refined action plan. To ensure effective

implementation, remember to employ responsibilities and mandates that are already in place,

whenever possible. However, not always this will be possible as available staff might be overwhelmed

by existing workloads and tasks. An important starting point, therefore, is an open discussion of

options that might ultimately lead to rearrangements or even additional capacities.

COMMUNICATION AND INVOLVEMENT

Communication and involvement

The definition and assignment of roles and responsibilities is one side of the coin, the other one is

appropriate communication and involvement of assigned actors inside and outside the local

government. This holds true at both tiers of implementation. Communication and involvement has to

be planned thoroughly, so that requirements and expectations of persons implementing projects are

not being neglected. And even more, to consider those that have not yet been part of the process so

far, but will now be requested to take active roles in particular projects (e.g. investors) or even will be

addressed to change behaviour (meaning in the end citizens in their role as e.g. energy consumers,

car drivers, or alike).

Communication and involvement in this phase is – in any case – embedded in the

overall Communication and involvement strategy of the integrated management system and will be

based on a thorough stakeholder mapping (see guidance paper Communication and Involvement and

section above on RACI and Power-Interest Grid). Implementation and monitoring, however, might

widen the focus of implementation beyond those stakeholders that – by interest – took part in

defining the Climate Strategy. The Communication and Involvement strategy needs to address the

following target groups:

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• Local Government staff of various departments and different levels of the administrative

hierarchy will be involved with contributions to the implementation of actions. They will need

to understand the bigger picture beyond their immediate technical contribution and are likely

to employ different working modes as suggested by the integrated nature of the management

process. It might be a good idea to consider particular training and capacity building activities

to satisfy their information needs (see also 4.2).

• Councillors will be involved with decisions on various options that derive from planning the

individual actions and projects. This might include budgetary decisions. Also, Councillors in

their various roles should be considered ambassadors of the Climate Strategy (see also

Guidance Paper Political Commitment) . To this end, they should be kept informed both by

formal intermediate reports to the Council and through personal information, e.g. for projects

in their constituency or those they have shown interest in.

• Private sector representatives and investors need close communication when it comes to

planning of an individual, privately financed project. Their understanding of the overall goals

of the Climate Strategy is of utmost importance as is guiding the project design, e.g. energy

efficient buildings in passive house standard, water sinks or storages, tree planting, or

permeable surfaces. Local government should take the perspective of partnering with private

investors, offering technical and financial advice.

• Stakeholder groups acting at city level will accompany both the implementation of tier 1 and

tier 2 activities. At tier 1 level, stakeholder groups should be involved in the evaluation of

progress in implementing the action plan. The city of Ludwigsburg, Germany has made good

experiences with regular evaluation conferences involving those stakeholders that

participated in setting up their city development concept. At tier 2 level, interested

stakeholder groups will get involved in the planning phase and should be given the

opportunity to provide their views and suggestions. Experience shows that formal

involvement in planning is not sufficient as it is usually somewhat an ‘end of pipe’ exercise

often leaving the opportunity for only cosmetic changes to already decided options. A better

idea is to benefit from ideas and technical experiences of these groups. Appearing conflicts of

interest between different stakeholder groups and investors will then be negotiated, usually

leading to a better project design. Non-involvement, instead, will raise resistance leaving risks

for the project implementation. In some cases, stakeholder groups might even take

responsibility for implementing individual projects, e.g. taking care of local greenery or parks

that support the city’s climate adaptation activities.

• Immediate stakeholders, usually individuals and more particularly residents affected by

projects, will rather show interest in tier 2 projects that affect directly their neighbourhood or

livelihood. The description of the general stakeholder groups applies likewise.

• Besides immediate involvement, there is a greater need to satisfy the information needs of

the wider community in regard of the local government’s activities. Moreover, often the

awareness and behaviour of citizens make a local government’s strategy succeed or fail.

Ambitious climate mitigation targets will require citizens to choose carbon responsible modes

of transport, energy efficient housing, renewable energy, regional and organic products,

energy-saving light bulbs and the appropriate behaviour in times of heat-waves. Awareness

raising and educational campaigns might therefore qualify for projects in the climate action

plan.

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Training

Integrated management for climate change response employs a new working mode for many staff

members in local governments. It combines successful implementation of the climate action plan with

specific technical skills, understanding of the phenomenon of climate change, a holistic perspective

and participatory attitude in a long-term, integrated process – skills that are not yet regular part of

professional education of civil servants. Hence, the action plan should also include regular training of

personnel in specific aspects and/or new legislation. Targeted training programmes for local staff will

be the most effective approach. The CHAMP Capacity Development Package and training kit offer a

basis for setting up training programmes. However, there are various other channels that might be

useful as starting point to increase the knowledge and capacities of staff members. Different options

range from specific events, participation in international projects or relevant campaigns and networks

to subscribing to thematic mailing lists. Some opportunities are listed in Direct and indirect impacts.

Overall Work plan and schedule

The schedule for implementing the measures and projects of the action plan should be timely enough

to get your city to its goal by the target year. Take into account the administrative, political, technical,

practical, and other issues your city will face in getting measures up and running. This perspective

might suggest to start with slow things first i.g. projects that take longer time for implementation,

such as construction work. However, to keep motivation high, it is recommended to keep a good

balance between longer-term projects and those that allow for visible and tangible success in the short

term.

In some cases, the climate action plan might include updating or drafting programmes, plans or

campaigns, rather than particular projects, e.g. update of the city’s master plan or the local mobility

plan. Well, there are numerous sources of inspiration for designing particular measures and projects

related to such plans or programmes, like handbooks (e.g. Ministry for Interior, Hungary – VÁTI,

Hungarian Non-Profit Ltd. For Regional Development and Town Planning, 2011, Stakeholder

involvement toolkit by Matruschka project, URBANworks toolkit for local authorities to develop an

organizational unit to ensure sustainable city development), guidelines (e.g. the EU Green Public

Procurement Guidelines) case study databases (e.g. the ICLEI case study series, UBC Good Practice

Database, Eltis case study database on urban mobility), project websites (e.g. Intelligent Energy for

Europe Project Website).

Measures suggested and implemented by stakeholders should be scheduled and described in the

same way as projects that are on the responsibility of a municipal department. In fact, Stakeholder

involvement will be essential for a successful realization of most measures. This requires substantial

and formal partnership agreements or formalised procedures of involvement. The UK approach to

implementation partnerships may serve as good practice examples, Leicester.

Besides thinking of the time usually needed for technical planning of a particular project, also consider

the following issues, when refining the work plan:

The schedule should be planned backwards from the planned date of target achievement set for

meeting your long-term climate response goal.

The schedule should provide ample time for external review and input.

Put aside time for citizen involvement and input as well as committee and commission review as

necessary.

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Practices to support individuals to elicit personal and organizational values Intuitively, we know when we are experiencing a 'good fit' or a 'bad fit' with the organization in which

we work.

A good fit feels like the organization gets you, values the same things as you do and shares some of

the same goals that you feel are important.

A bad fit feels like you are always having to compromise what you believe in to achieve progress and

success in the organization. It feels like you are always fighting 'the process' and 'the structure' of the

organization.

This concept of 'fit' goes beyond intuition and is backed by a substantial amount of research.

Some common terms used when talking about 'fit' are as follows:

1. Person-Environment (P-E) Fit - A broad term to capture the congruence between a person and

their working environment.

2. Person-Organization (P-O) Fit - Compatibility between individuals and organizations.

3. Person-Vocation (P-V) Fit - Compatibility between individuals and their vocation / profession.

4. Person-Group (P-G) fit - Compatibility between individuals and their work groups / teams.

5. Person-Job (P-J) Fit - Compatibility of individuals with specific jobs.

Perhaps the most widely used and well known concept of fit is that of Person-Vocation fit. It's obvious

appeal can be linked to the old age question of 'what career should I pursue?' This concept became

incredibly popular following the work of John Holland who suggested that people and organizations

have 'personalities' which he characterized with his RIASEC types (realistic, investigative, artistic,

social, enterprising and conventional). The closer the individual personality matches to the vocational

environment the better off the individual will be in that vocation. Modern career assessment tests are

largely based on the work of John Holland.

If we sharpen the focus from vocations to organizations, the P-O fit concept can provide a similar

picture for the fit between an individual and an organization. One of the more common applications

of the P-O fit concept is to assess the similarity between an individuals and organizations values.

This concept of values can be incredibly important when it comes to assessing your fit to your

organization. At the core is the question of beliefs. Does the organization believe in the things that

you hold dearest? Values are contributors to an organizations culture and therefore to the behaviour

exhibited throughout the organization. Is this behaviour compatible with your values and behaviours?

Measuring Person-Organization Fit

The first challenge when trying to ascertain the similarity between an individuals and organizations

values is to determine what is to be measured.

Best practice tries to find a common 'content dimension' that can be used as the basis of

measurement.

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If we take the stated values of the Boston Consulting Group as an example, we can see they hold the

following values as important (whether they live by these values is a separate question).

1. Integrity

2. Respect for the Individual

3. Diversity

4. Clients Come First

5. The Strategic Perspective

6. Value Delivered

7. Partnership

8. Expanding the Art of the Possible

9. Social Impact

An effort can be made to map these value statements to a universally accepted values scale (Schwartz

- see diagram below).

1. Integrity (BENEVOLNECE - Honest / Responsible)

2. Respect for the Individual (UNIVERSALISM - Broadminded)

3. Diversity (UNIVERSALISM - Equality)

4. Clients Come First (BENEVOLNECE - Helpful)

5. The Strategic Perspective (ACHEIVEMENT - Intelligent / Capable)

6. Value Delivered (ACHEIVEMENT - Ambitious)

7. Partnership (BENEVOLNECE - True Friendship)

8. Expanding the Art of the Possible (ACHEIVEMENT - Influential) + (SELF-DIRECTION -

Creativity)

9. Social Impact (UNIVERSALISM - Protecting the Environment)

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With the characteristics set for investigation, there are a number of options available to measure the

'fit' between the organization and individual.

Direct measurement asks the individuals directly whether they believe a good fit exists. This 'perceived

fit' has shown a strong relationship to a variety of positive effects such as greater feelings of personal

success and higher levels of commitment.

Indirect measurement avoids asking the individuals for their perception of fit and instead involves an

explicit comparison between separately rated individual and organizational values. This is sometimes

referred to as 'actual' fit.

How do you feel you stack up against the values that the Boston Consulting Group deems as

important?

Long Term Outcomes

Several studies have shown that values congruence can have positive effects on the following

individual outcomes:

Work Attitudes - Strong values alignment has shown relationships to job satisfaction, organizational

commitment, motivation, feelings of team cohesion, feelings of personal success and greater concern

for stakeholders.

Intention to quit and Turnover - Studies have shown that individuals with lower values alignment to

their organization are more likely to report an intention to leave. Studies have also shown that these

intentions to leave are often realized (turnover).

Prosocial Behaviours - Values alignment has also been linked to self reported positive organizational

citizenship behaviours such as teamwork and helping with orientations.

Organizational Impact

Although there is strong positive evidence for individuals to find a good 'values match'when it comes

to their choice or employer, what about the impacts to organizations?

Do employers benefit from having a large portion of their employees with a strong P-O fit?

Is there a dark side of good fit?

Certain studies have looked into the impacts that having too many people of 'the right type'might

have. An inability to adapt to changing circumstances and a lack of innovation has been suggested as

two possible consequences.

Conclusion

Values can be a powerful concept to help individuals in their career decisions and understanding why

they may feel a certain way about their current employer. There is enough evidence to show that the

individuals experience is likely to be more positive if they can find a good values match with their

employer.

Organizations that want to be at the forefront of innovation and change will need to accept that a

wider dimension and mix of values may be the recipe for success.

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How individuals are motivated and encouraged to apply learning to practice Learning requires motivation. Whether you are a student trying to learn something, or a teacher

helping students learn, you will need to develop strategies to help motivate learning.

Student learning will occur in proportion to the effort that a student puts into learning. Therefore, a

key task for the teacher is to encourage and promote student effort. This can be a challenge, even if

the teacher creates a supportive learning environment, because many of the factors that influence

student learning are affected by the student’s overall attitude, likes and dislikes, feelings about a

subject, activity or school in general, and personality.

To improve student motivation, teachers use both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Intrinsic

motivators rely on the value of the content and of learning to the student. Extrinsic motivators rely on

the value of reinforcers or rewards to the student.

Overall incentives

Incentive can be illustrated by an example of animal learning. A hungry rat placed in a maze will quickly

learn to make those turns which lead to food. This is a reaffirmation of Maslow's physiological level

need. The rat will not take the particular route if the food is not there, or is of insufficient quality and

quantity to provide incentive for the rat to go to the food. Thus, an incentive can be regarded as a

pulling force, different to a drive, which is a pushing force.

Let us now consider the individual’s incentive to

learn. The incentive to learn may be innate, or it

may be acquired. Ask yourself this rather

interesting question - If a student didn’t have to

learn, would he or she wish to learn? There is no

simple answer, since even those students who

don’t enjoy learning in the classroom will

continue to learn from life experiences and

activities that interest them. Also, students who

enjoy learning in the classroom may no longer

enjoy that learning if there is no longer any

achievement. The fact is that learning can be

either internally or externally motivated, and

different kinds of motivators will influence

different learning situations.

Internal or intrinsic incentives

There are other incentives primarily within oneself, apart from those already stated. These incentives

are mainly connected with the person’s attitude to learning, and therefore, teacher motivation should

aim at developing and supporting internal incentives. These incentives can include:

Pride in doing things well – Students can find great satisfaction in a task well done, and gain a valuable

sense of competence, which in itself can motivate further effort.

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The desire for accomplishment – This can be

seen in statements such as "I have done all

those" of “I have done that”. The individual gains

a sense of satisfaction when a task is

accomplished, and others may gain satisfaction

from completing a task.

Personal ambition - Some students have a good

idea of what they want to achieve later in life, or

even just that they do want to achieve and

succeed in life. They might value learning as a

way of building a future that will bring wealth,

prestige, power and other benefits.

Competition with oneself - Students sometimes set their own standards and rate of working. By doing

this they are issuing a challenge to themselves and thus providing incentive. They may also measure

their success by comparing their achievements or progress to others’.

A sense of control or power – Students can gain a sense of control and power through developing

skills and knowledge. A sense of being able to influence their environment is essential to preventing

apathy and learned helplessness.

A sense of participation and belonging – Working as part of a group or class can give students a sense

of belonging and affiliation.

Personal relationships – Some students are not as interested in belonging

to a group as they are in developing positive relations with individuals.

Students can be very impressed by a teacher, and be motivated by a desire

to be approved of by that teacher and to make that teacher happy. A

student might be motivated by having one good friend who is also

learning, and will often be motivated to do well in areas that involve that

other student, or where the friend is doing well.

Values and ethics - Different students may have different ethics or values regarding learning and

education. Some may feel that education is critical to later success and to an individual’s sense of

worth and status in society. Others don’t see it as important. Some students are motivated by ethics

that include honouring family and respect for adults, whereas others are more motivated by values

that stress independence and autonomy.

External incentives

In the classroom, these include rewards, good grades, praise, and any other factor that can introduced

into the learning environment. Other external incentives can include social and cultural expectations

and values, family expectations, job prospects, or goals that learning can help achieve.

Tangible rewards can be important motivators. If a student knows they will receive certain rewards

for learning or for certain classroom behaviours, that can be a powerful reinforcer. However, tangible

rewards are not always the main motivators. In the workplace, security and advancement can be just

as motivating as money. In the classroom, prestige, esteem, recognition and family approval of effort

can be just as important as good grades. Yet reward systems do get results, so they are a valuable part

of a teacher’s motivation strategies.

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On the other hand, incentives can demotivate students from learning behaviours. Peer pressure

can have a significant impact on influencing how much a student will study and learn, and how willing

he or she is to behave in ways that promote learning. Many otherwise capable and motivated students

under perform to avoid being called ‘eggheads’ or to fit in with peer groups who do not value learning

– or do not succeed in the classroom.

The relational character of incentives

An important part of motivation is the value to the person of the goal, object, situation or type of

activity toward which the motivated person is striving. In animal research, the quantity of food in the

goal ox will determine the speed of a rat through the maze. Don’t we all work harder for greater

reward? This is the relational character of incentives, and unfortunately, it is often overlooked.

Crespi (1942) demonstrated that rats ran much faster after being shifted from four units of food up to

sixteen units than after a shift from sixty four units down to sixteen units.

Some rats even refused to eat after this cut in reward. The same kind of disappointment was illustrated

more dramatically by Tinklepaugh (1928). He trained a monkey to retrieve food which it had been

allowed to see placed beneath one of two boxes. Tinklepaugh allowed the monkey to see him place a

banana beneath one of the boxes, but then he surreptitiously substituted a piece of lettuce for the

banana. When the monkey was allowed to choose between the two boxes it correctly selected the

one which was supposedly concealing a banana. Finding only lettuce, the monkey turned over the

other box, which was empty. The frustration was too much for the monkey; it then threw the lettuce

at Tinklepaugh - lettuce is just not good enough when the expectations are for a banana.

You should have little difficulty in remembering similar examples from your own experience. Keep in

mind, though, that a greater reward does not necessarily refer to the amount of reward. It can also

refer to the greater value that we place on the reward. A rat will not work hard for large amounts of

a food that it does not like. Similarly, one student might be highly motivated by a B (or high) grade

where another might not consider this worth extra effort. Or one student might be motivated by being

given an independent project, where another person might be motivated by group work.

Crucial to motivation is the anticipation or expectation of a desirable outcome. We evaluate incentives

according to our expectations of outcomes, and to the value that we place on those anticipated

outcomes.

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How the individual can be supported to maintain focus and alignment to organizational

needs Most of us are familiar with the concept of SMART goals -- goals that

are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. But specifying SMART goals on a larger scale

is more difficult, especially in terms of organizational goals. The main problem? It's rare to have

everyone on the same page.

In September 2015, Achievers released The Greatness Gap: The State of Employee

Disengagement report with some startling finds: The majority -- more than 60 percent -- of the 397

employees surveyed said they didn’t know their company’s mission, vision or values.

This illustrated the staggering disconnect that plagues workplaces today: Employers are failing to align

employees with their organizational goals.

When employees don’t know their company's mission, vision or core values, they are left with a lack

of direction. Instead, they need to be aware of how their projects fit into the overall organizational

framework and how their specific contributions impact company strategy.

The key here is alignment. Employees at all levels need to be aligned on their companies' larger goals,

and those goals need to be broken down to a smaller scale to ensure that people remain engaged in

day-to-day operations.

Here are the elements for building a successful organizational-goal alignment strategy:

1. Feedback is consistent.

Managers who consistently provide feedback can help keep employees focused on their performance.

Feedback acts as a reminder. Without it, employees get too caught up in their daily tasks and lose

sight of the bigger picture.

Feedback about performance typically looks at how someone’s work affects other people in that

employee's job area. An effective discussion will include and address the company’s overall strategy.

Employees see the value in feedback, as well. Workboard found that 72 percent of employees

surveyed thought their performance would improve with more feedback. Job feedback should focus

on growth and forward thinking by and how employees can learn from their mistakes.

In other words, feedback should be corrective. In a January 2014 survey, the Harvard Business

Review found that 57 percent of 899 respondents preferred corrective feedback, and 72 percent said

their performance would improve if managers provided such corrective feedback.

Additionally, employers should seek feedback from their staff. If employees feel that they aren’t

informed properly or are missing information, they should be able to speak up.

If, for example, a tenured employee finds new directives to be off track, he or she should be able

to express concerns and ask how a particular project contributes to the overall organizational goals.

2. Tasks are properly allocated.

Employees should know their role in each of their projects. To help them do this, you can use visuals

to explain the company's overall strategy and how each role advances toward its goals. Some project-

management platforms provide real-time goal-tracking and present it in charts and graphs to

demonstrate individual and group progress.

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It’s also important to assign the right tasks to the right people. Use feedback and performance reviews

to understand each employee’s level of competency and what his or her strengths are, to maintain

and even improve productivity. If particular employees excel at closing sales deals, put them on the

front line on client presentations.

Tasks, further, should challenge an employee to grow. Consistent feedback lets employers know

their employees' plan to evolve, which in turn informs the assignment of projects. If, for example, a

tenured employee wants to expand his or her skill set and learn more about research and

development, the employer can integrate that individual's role with that department.

Bottom line: Great companies help employees set and achieve their individual goals and align those

personal goals with the overall goals of the organization. The best-case scenario is a team of

employees who are engaged enough to want to grow within the company and help it evolve toward

the vision that's been set.

3. Everyone gets recognized.

In the 2015 Employee Recognition Report by the Society for Human Resource Management and

Globoforce, 90 percent of the 823 HR professionals surveyed said an employee recognition program

positively impacted engagement.

Engagement is essential to keep a company growing and reaching for its vision. When employees

aren’t recognized, they lose track of their purpose. But in contrast, when wins are celebrated,

employees want to win more.

A simple expression of gratitude, such as a thank-you note or gift, shows employees that management

is paying attention and notices that they are consistently working hard and succeeding at their

individual goals.

When recognizing top talent, explain how employees' efforts are pushing the company toward large-

scale goals. Show how their performance is meeting and exceeding expectations to encourage more

hard work and dedication.

It’s not easy to translate large, wide-reaching organizational goals into smaller, everyday tasks while

not losing sight of the big picture. But it’s not impossible, either. Consistently checking in with

employees individually, recognizing their efforts and reminding them of their purpose is what

constitutes a successful organizational goal-alignment strategy.

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The impact of action learning on organizational objectives

The use of action learning across programs of learning Many leadership programs utilize some form of learning projects based on principles of adult learning

and action learning. They are intended to strengthen the participant’s capacity to apply learning across

different contexts. Of course, most action learning project participants hope to also deliver some value

to the community beyond their own learning experience. Donna Dinkin, an action learning specialist

describes action learning:

“ Action learning is a process (often coach supported) involving a small group of people solving real

problems while at the same time focusing on what they are learning and how their learning can benefit

each group member and the organization and community as a whole.”

In the broader field of leadership development, programs try to create a genuine leadership

application opportunity because people learn best by doing. It can be challenging to scope a project

that can be accomplished during the duration of many leadership programs. Given these constraints

the challenge is to 1) find a meaningful project that can be implemented or initiated and sustained

beyond the program in order to make a contribution to the program’s desired goals, and 2) build into

the project a robust action learning methodology that optimizes the application of new knowledge,

skills and abilities while increasing the effectiveness and impact of the learning project. The challenges

of selecting an appropriate project cannot be underestimated.

Ideally, the project work is not just a vehicle for learning, but actually is advanced by action learning.

Some leadership programs have been experimenting with ways to reframe their action learning

opportunities by leveraging existing work rather than assuming the program participants need to (or

can) develop new projects specifically for the purpose of action learning in a very short time span.

A number of other leadership programs are designed with the use of projects that are intended to

support the application of skills to projects that participants will be able to sustain through their

current work/organizations. Below are five different examples of how this is done.

Ladder to Leaders: In the early part of the program, participants write up a couple of the key issues

related to the programs community health outcome goals on large flip chart pages and then

participants go and stand by the issues that they are most interested in working on. This is a way of

facilitating self-organizing among the group to identify the areas of most convergent issues and those

who would like to work on the issue. (The groups are expected to be somewhat distributed in size so

some people may have to opt for their second choice.) During the session, people in the respective

groups pitch ideas about how they would like to work on the issue. Through this process people are

mostly organized around issues they are passionate about spending time on. There are no limitations

to selecting issues that participants are already working on or may be able to support with

organizational resources and time. The process happened early in the program so that the teams had

time to implement their projects.

The Mesoamerican Reef Leadership Program (MAR-L): One interesting feature of MAR-L is their

approach to recruitment. If you are hoping to effect on the ground change around a social issue, it

helps to be strategic in your recruitment and think about who in the system needs to be part of the

change you are hoping to produce. MAR-L approached this by thinking about the different issues

undermining the health of the reef, (e.g. tourism, land management, overfishing, climate change) and

which of these issues they could tackle that would make a difference. Over the years, they

experimented with recruiting cohorts around specific themes, across sectors and from different

countries. Each year they choose a new theme.

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The National Academy of Leadership in Public Health (NLAPH) and the Emerging Leaders in Public

Health (ELPH) programs: Both of these programs, with a focus on population health outcomes, recruit

teams who have already formed around a project idea. NLAPH recruits a multi-disciplinary team of 4-

5 participants from different organizations so that the project work builds relationships among

agencies that should be collaborating to improve community health. The ELPH programs recruits an

existing and future leader from the same public health agency who are charged with developing a

project that can help to transform their agency. The project is expected to evolve and in some cases

change dramatically with coaching as participants apply what they are learning to strengthening their

concept and implementation.

Results Based Leadership: The Annie E. Casey Foundations supports a Results Based Leadership

program that is based in the Theory of Aligned Contribution. This program selects a specific result like

reducing teen pregnancy, improving school readiness or reducing recidivism. Once the result is

determined, partners target organizations and agencies that could leverage their organization’s

position and resources to make more progress on the result by aligning their efforts with others in the

system.

There are several advantages to these approaches:

• These approaches are designed to increase the impact and sustainability of participants’

project work on their desired goal.

• Many of these approaches connect project work with the work that is occurring within

participants’ organizational and initiatives context. The idea is to work smarter through

collaboration, rather than harder. In these approaches, the project work would be situated in

organizations that could accept and deploy the foundation grants to sustain the projects.

• These approaches build relationships among stakeholders who are more likely to continue

working together. It takes time to develop trust relationships, and in these models that time

is invested in building work relationships that are more likely to be sustained. Another way to

look at this is building relationships that can support emerging networks.

• Most of the approaches start project development early on and integrate the application of

new knowledge and skills supported by action learning coaching from the start so that learning

and the project are integrated throughout the program.

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The organizational objectives and the impact of action learning towards achievement The success or failure of any organisation relies to a great extent on the skills, talents and personal

attributes of its people:

• How well do they work together as a team?

• Can they communicate effectively?

• Do they possess the necessary resilience to cope well with tough challenges?

• How willing are they to adapt and embrace change?

• How much ownership and responsibility do they take for their individual role and the greater

good of the organisation?

• Are they effective and inspirational leaders lighting the way?

The list goes on, but demonstrates the importance of high performing teams if a business or

organisation is to thrive and prosper.

Action learning for team and organisational development has an important role to play in promoting

team relations at all levels; between peer groups and leaders, senior management and staff.

We recently conducted a series of in-house action learning sets for a group that was not working

optimally as a team. This group had been assigned specific project goals that required them to work

well together if the desired outcomes were to be achieved. Action learning gave them the time and

space to explore which attributes make a good team.

Between them the group identified a list of qualities that they felt would produce the best team:

• Regularly communicate

• Listen to each other

• Have agreed goals

• Learn from each other’s experience

• Improve their performance

• Team morale boosts wins

• Generate momentum

• Look at effectiveness and efficiency

• Question what they do

The action learning programme took place over a period of 7 months, during which the team members

came together 5 times for a series of 1 and a half day meetings.

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Results

Through an exercise of self evaluation, where individual team members scored their team against

these attributes, where 10 was best and 0 was worst, it was possible to track progress by analysing

results of this poll at the outset and at the end of the programme.

Each individual team member increased their score out of 10 by either 4 or 5 points at the end of the

course, demonstrating a significant improvement.

In addition to working on team attributes, the group were also asked to set themselves individual

objectives which would deliver benefits to both the individual and the organisation. In doing so, they

were able to achieve the following benefits to the organisation by focusing on very specific, personal

goals:

• Improved problem solving skills

• Confidence and resilience

• Improved inter-personal and listening skills

• Better team working

It has united a professional team and encouraged them to work together to share group objectives

Action learning puts the power of the learning directly into the hands of the participants. Throughout

the process they were fully engaged, finding solutions to issues, concerns and problems through

reflective learning, listening and questioning. It’s this unique way of reaching outcomes that leaves

participants fully committed to the changes they identify are needed, and gives them the confidence

from within to take action

And the outcome?

This action learning programme produced a more agile team. Working collaboratively and with

improved interpersonal skills they were able to meet the challenges of their specific project more

effectively. The team recognised and appreciated each other’s strengths and weaknesses, supported

one another and flourished through shared learning.

Of course these benefits will last way beyond the extent of the specific project they are working on

together. Team members have taken away new skills, new ways of thinking and a team spirit that will

continue to benefit the organisation into the future.