Marquardt, M. J. (2004). Chapter 8: Introducing, implementing, and sustaining action learning. Optimizing the Power of Action Learning: Solving Problems and Building Leaders in Real Time. Yarmouth, ME, USA:

1.

A group of 20 from different departments from within an organization

is put together to form an action learning set. At their meetings, every

person is allowed to present and receive feedback from other set

members and their coach. At first they are allowed to present and

receive feedback for a half hour each but group members become

exhausted from 10 hour meetings. Then this time is cut to 5 minutes

per person but group members feel they are unable to learn or get

adequate feedback from their coach and other group members in this

amount of time.

2.

A CEO picks an important problem for an action learning group

consisting of five senior managers. The group meets every month for

a full day for nine months. After nine months, each group member

feels that they have learned a lot from receiving feedback every

month and has improved several areas of their leadership skills. The

group presents to the CEO a detailed plan along with steps they have

already taken to help solve the problem and the results they have

For this assignment, pretend that you are a leadership development

coach assigned to help some organizations fix their action learning programs. For each of the scenarios below, explain what you think went

wrong and how it could be fixed based on what you have learned about action learning in the background readings. For each of the three

scenarios, explain your diagnosis and use at least one citation from the required readings to support your diagnosis. Your paper should be two to three pages in length:

seen. But the CEO is upset because they didn’t come up with the

solution the wanted and orders the group out of his office.

3.

A group of several managers is put together to form an action

learning set. The group members are very motivated to start this

program and excited about the possibilities for developing their skills.

The facilitator for the action learning program is a top assistant to the

CEO. During group meetings, team members are reluctant to discuss

difficulties they are facing in their tasks. Whenever a team member

gives a presentation, they tend to only discuss positive experiences

and they never criticize the organization.