The degree to which Training & Development activities impact on the 'bottom-line' performance of the business is not just related to the amount of T&D activity but, more importantly, how T&D activity is organised. We believe that the Business Plan should be central in directing T&D resources and budgets. By linking business plans to T&D activity it is then possible to specify particular actions or behaviours. These actions or behaviours can then become the outcomes for any training event. This is a simple way to commence the process of action learning. It is much better to use this approach to active learning rather than commit resources to it purely as an act of faith.

Action Learning is…..

• Learning by pursuing certain learning outcomes and is geared towards developing the relationship between 'thinking' and 'doing'
• Focused on development activities that require more than a knowledge input and geared towards practising or demonstrating a particular skill or behaviour
• A powerful development tool to reinforce the message that 'other than classroom' training can impact on business performance
• Directly linked to business development activities (hence our reference to the business plan) and to needed changes that can move the organisation to new levels of functioning
• Having a degree or element of 'experiential' learning built into the process - giving responsibility for learning to the learner
• Involving some level of risk where the learner needs to make calculated judgements and intuitive calls on potential courses of action