Beginner’s mind and Action Learning
What was it like to have a beginners mind when I began my experience with action learning?
Action Learning
Action learning is one of the most innovative team work technique of solving real life problems by taking action and reflecting on the outcomes of these actions. I must confess that I used to procrastinate problems until I familiarized with action learning. What made action learning attractive to me was the practical problem solving approach it offered. Action learning creates a sense of commitment to the learning process that involves finding solutions to the problems at hand. When I started utilizing this approach, I was not that much of a curios person. I mean I did use to solve problems but did not used to be creative in it. After I started to use action learning technique, I started to become curios and innovative about problem solving and started to reflect on the outcomes of my actions. As we know that a leader has the end in mind when leading a team. This is what exactly action learning suggests.
What is different with action learning and what makes it so special? I used to work as an intern at a travel agency in Dubai. The customers complained about their emails not answered on time or not even answered. The management and other employees tried their best for a week to find the issue and then resolve it but they failed. They primarily focused on trying to know if the customer really sent the emails and if they were sent to the correct email address or not. What I did was use action learning technique. I took actions by Googling what might cause an email to arrive late or get lost in its way. Within a day, I learned that the issue might be at the email server end. We emailed the webhosting provider and the issues was resolved within an hour.
Action learning worked for the organization that worked with as an intern, and it would definitely work for just any organization. I would suggest everyone to take action, learn about a problem and resolve it.