Action Learning

We are experienced and enthusiastic facilitators of Action Learning Sets – within organisations and across systems. We also provide supervision to ALS Facilitators post training to embed new skills as facilitators begin their practice.

In times of complexity and change, the ability to learn while acting is crucial. As Kurt Lewin, (the founder of Action Research) proposed – if you want to understand a system, try changing it. That’s where Action Learning makes the difference. It is one of the most powerful – and often underused – tools for building collective capacity for transformative change, developing leaders and strengthening teams.

Action Learning Sets bring 8-12 people together to tackle real work challenges through structured reflection, questioning, and insight. It’s a simple but powerful process: a small group works on live issues, supported by a skilled facilitator, to find new perspectives and options and grow their leadership capability at the same time. As they move beyond a single way of viewing their situation, new possibilities and confidence emerge. The group plays a vital role in supporting and testing ideas, creating a disciplined process of reflection that embeds learning in practice and ends with a commitment to action. Over time, individuals and teams become more self-sufficient, adaptive, and open to growth and learning.

Facilitation Training

We design and deliver training in Action Learning Set Facilitation.

For example, we ran a training course for senior mental health practitioners in facilitating ALS to support leaders working on a cross organisational collaboration and system change project (National iThrive implementation). The programme of nine three-hour sessions delivered over 20 weeks in a group of eight to ten provides a gold standard in facilitation skills and practice which can be adapted to a variety of settings and frequency of set meeting (3 sessions, 6 sessions, 9 sessions).

“Experienced facilitators, generous with their knowledge and modelling excellent practice to the group.”

“I learnt a lot from both facilitators. They allowed you to grow and learn yourself without being directive but gave guidance when needed. Their patience and curiosity made me want to be more patient and ask those thought provoking questions rather than being solution focussed.”

Action Learning Facilitation Training 2026

We are running an online programme for eight people experienced in group work, team coaching or training who would like to add Action Learning facilitation to their practice. This experiential programme of nine three-hour sessions will start in January and finish in July and provide you with the confidence to work with the method and an opportunity to live facilitate and learn through membership of a set.

It will run approximately every three weeks on Thursday mornings between 09.30 and 12.30. It will give you a robust grounding in the theory and practice of Action Learning and give you an opportunity to be both a participant and a facilitator in a Set. Once the training starts it will be a closed group, and the expectation is for attendance at all sessions.

Fee £1350 with early bird discount, £1150 if registered by 30th November.

January 15

March 26

May 21

February 5

April 16

June 11

March 5

May 7

July 2

Please register your interest for further information and details of payment.

Bespoke

Worked in collaborative partnership with multiple agencies.

Leadership

Training design and delivery for health and social care aspiring, early and experienced leaders.

Impact Stories

The national iThrive programme is implemented across England to improve services for children and young people’s mental health using the THRIVE Framework for System Change. They wanted to introduce action learning in their offer and to train those working on the programme in action learning set facilitation. We designed an online experiential programme of nine half days and delivered to a number of cohorts of experienced clinicians and practitioners.

“Experienced facilitators, generous with their knowledge and modelling excellent
practice to the group.”

“Really liked Helen and Abi’s styles, felt their experience and understanding of systems shone through in helping us navigate the training and our experiences in the systems we work in. Found them to be thoughtful, responsive and they held the group in a way that created a sense of safety”

iThrive Supervision

Supervision is provided to groups of newly trained Action Learning Set Facilitators taking their first groups within the iThrive framework. Supervision is provided to the group for their first sets and this also supports the building of a peer supervision group to continue once the training has been fully put into practice.