From real life to real life: bringing ‘double awareness’ from Action Learning programmes into organisational reality

ABSTRACT

In Action Learning programmes, it is held central to work on real business challenges (task) while learning about team and self (process); staying mindful aware of the process is referred to in this paper as ‘double awareness’, and emphasises noticing and acting on process cues while working on the task. As business challenges within Action Learning programmes are real, pertinent, and worked with in the context of the organisation, implementation of potential solutions to the challenges is proved to be efficient. However, less is known of how individual participants manage to stay with double awareness upon re-entry into the organisational routines left behind. The aim of this paper is to explore when, why, and how participants manage to maintain double awareness and act on what they notice when back in organisational reality – and what characterise the moments where they struggle to do so. A study will be shared, where participants have been followed for a period of time after an Action Learning-programme. The study takes a psychodynamic stance and contributes to the knowledge of the individual re-entry by exploring individual, group and organisational dynamics promoting and hindering double awareness. The concepts ‘mindful avoidance’ and ‘mindful alertness’ are introduced as essential conceptual findings. Finally the paper will explore how the overall findings can be applied back into Action Learning-methodology as enablers for improvement.

KEYWORDS:

• Business Driven Action Learning
• Critical Action Learning
• double awareness
• mindful action
• defensive routines

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Danish Agency for Technology, Science, and Innovation.