An account of practice: employing drawings and stories to enable reflective learning

ABSTRACT

Facilitating reflection for personal growth in a business context requires careful thought and planning. As a learning process, Business-Driven Action Learning (BDAL) has two points of focus. It aims to firstly identify and make recommendations regarding a business challenge, whist secondly facilitating potentially significant individual personal learning and growth. The research reported in this account of practice focused on personal learning by exploring the potential for individuals to experience transformative learning during a BDAL process. During the research I used a number of methods including hand-drawn images and in-depth interviews to enable the writing of interpretive stories. Findings revealed that participants found reflection during and after the BDAL beneficial. They gained insights into what they learnt, what changed since the BDAL experience and also what they still need to focus on. The findings have practical implications for the action learning facilitator of BDAL during management development programmes. One of the ways action learning facilitators can initiate the reflection process of new participants is to share the experience of previous participants. ‘Sandy’s interpretive story’, contained in this article, is such an example and includes hand-drawn images of her learning journey. I argue that the use of interpretative stories helps new participants understand programme challenges and stimulates their individual learning journey.

KEYWORDS:

• Business-Driven Action Learning
• reflection
• hand-drawn images
• interpretative stories

Notes on contributors

Jane Robertson holds a Human Resource Masters degree and is researching business driven action learning for her PhD. She has experience in the facilitation of management development programmes and has worked in both corporate and academic institutions. She is a Director of Training Partners, a management development company.

Dr Heidi le Sueur holds a PhD in Philosophy with a focus on Organisational Learning and the Transfer of Learning. Her Master’s degree explored experiential learning approaches, and her MBA looked at creating value during Merger and Acquisition integration processes. She is currently employed as the Head of Teaching and Learning and as a senior lecturer at the Stellenbosch University Business School.

Dr Nicky Terblanche is a senior lecturer, researcher and research supervisor on the MBA, MPhil Coaching and PhD programmes at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. He runs an executive and business coaching practice and consults as an IT architect. He has an MPhil in Management Coaching, an MScEng in electronic engineering and a PhD in Business Management.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.