Making action learning our own: a story from the Basque Country

ABSTRACT

This account of practice describes how elected representatives, politically appointed managers and career officers of the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council have adopted action learning as a way of learning how to transform their institution, an important aspect of which has been to find locally situated ways of establishing and consolidating the approach. The article provides pen portraits to illustrate what has been learned and achieved so far and in conclusion draws attention to the importance of shifting the balance of learning and challenge from a focus on individuals towards a collective effort which tackles deep rooted organisational problems.

KEYWORDS:

• Action learning
• organisational learning
• collaborative governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Olatz Errazquin

Olatz Errazquin holds a BA in law (University of the Basque Country) and a Master’s degree in Management and Business Administration (Mondragon University). Since 2021, she has been head of service of Etorkizuna Eraikiz, a commitment by the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council to collaborative governance as a way of responding to the main strategic challenges of the province’s future.

Ana Agirre

Ana Agirre holds a degree in Education (University of the Basque Country) and a Master’s degree on Gender Mainstreaming (Jaume I University – Castellón). Before joining the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council as Head of Gender Equality, she worked for Emakunde – the Basque Government's Institute for Gender Equality.

Amaia Miner

Amaia Miner graduated in Architecture from the University of the Basque Country and holds a postgraduate Diploma in Territorial Planning (Eusko Ikaskuntza). She heads up the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council's land and property management service.

Anne Murphy

Anne Murphy is an independent researcher and consultant. She holds an M.A. in Management Learning and a PhD in Applied Linguistics, both from Lancaster University.