Tension, risk and conflict: action-learning journeys with four public-sector partnership teams

Abstract

This paper examines the learning gained from facilitating four action-learning sets whose members were drawn from management teams of local authority, health, education and police, working in partnership. Facilitation posed a series of difficult choices which impacted on personal and organizational dynamics within and between the partnership teams. The different journeys taken by the four learning sets are chartered and analysed. The paper concludes with reflections on these facilitation choices and suggests that real learning can arise when teams are prepared to risk exploring the tensions and conflicts that are an integral aspect of partnership working.

Keywords:

• partnerships
• public sector
• management teams
• facilitation