History of Action Learning Teams

©2019 ITAP International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1
History of the Action Learning
Team Process
Questionnaire™:
The Path to
High Performance

The Need for Action Learning
• The world is changing
faster than organizations
can react
– Current capabilities
become outdated
Action Learning helps organizations
maintain their competitive edge

The Origins of ALTPQ: Reg Revans
• Reg Revans (1907-2003) developed
Action Learning
• Revans believed “that the key to
improving performance lay not with
'experts' but with practitioners
themselves.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Revans

Action Learning Helps Solve
Real Problems
• Three “questions commonly begin the
action learning process”:
1. “What should be happening?”
2. “What is stopping us from doing it?”
3. “What can we do?”
Source: https://itapintl.com/PDF/action_learning.pdf, pp. 6
Robert Dilworth “Action Learning in a Nutshell” Performance Improvement Quarterly, 1998,
Volume 11, Number 1, pp. 28-43

Action Learning
• “The best way to promote fresh questions
and new thinking is by causing the
problem, setting, and colleagues to be
unfamiliar”
Source: https://itapintl.com/PDF/action_learning.pdf, page 5
Robert Dilworth “Action Learning in a Nutshell” Performance Improvement Quarterly, 1998, Volume
11, Number 1, pp. 28-43

Why is Action Learning
Important for Teams?
• Tackles an important (typically difficult/as yet
unsolved) organizational or social problem
• Includes team members with a variety of
functional capabilities
• Can provide development opportunities and
exposure to other parts of the organization for
“talent”
• Gives all team members a chance to lead in
their area of expertise

Example: Florida Power and
Light
• Florida Power and Light’s electricity
generating capacity was inefficient
• A team was assembled from different
divisions and departments
– Questioned assumptions
– Asked new questions
Source: https://itapintl.com/PDF/action_learning.pdf, pp 3-4

Example: Florida Power and
Light
• The Action Learning Team discovered a
number of problems, including that “birds
nesting on power lines” can damage
power lines
Source: https://itapintl.com/PDF/action_learning.pdf, pp 3-4

The Origins of ALTPQ
• The ALTPQ was developed as a part of
ITAP’s Team Process Questionnaire
(TPQ) system which also includes:
– Global/multicultural team tool
– Tool for non-global/local teams
• Focuses on self-directed Action Learning
teams

Key Benefits of Action
Learning
• Team members benefit by:
– Learning from / teach each other
– Solving sticky problems
– Experiencing leadership by sharing their
functional perspectives
– Getting in front of senior leaders with their
project report

Benefits to Individuals
• Reflect on and learn from individual experiences,
yours and others’
• Enhance personal leadership and soft skills
• Develop self-confidence and assertiveness
• Improve awareness of how assumptions, beliefs,
attitudes and organizational interests influence
thinking, decisions and actions
• Develop Emotional Intelligence (EI): self awareness,
awareness of others, adaptability
• Find the courage to speak up and encourage others to
do the same

Benefits to Organizations
• Rapidly solve urgent and important business
challenges
• Achieve a substantial Return on Investment (ROI) on
organization improvement projects/talent development
• Develop a culture of staff engagement, involvement
and performance
• Establish effective succession management by
developing highly qualified candidates for promotion
• Become a learning organization
• Become more strategic in goal setting

How Clients Benefit from
Action Learning
ACTION LEARNING CAN
BE USED TO:
•Lead organizational
change
•Develop “talent” by
introducing them to the
functional capabilities of
other team members
•Solve previously
unsolvable problems
•Give “talent” visibility to
Senior Management

ITAP’s ALTPQ
• Should be administered several times
throughout the project life span to measure
change over time
• Tracks team members’ perspective on project
progress in these areas:
– Member Development
– Communication
– Action Learning Principles
– Team Fundamentals
– Delivering Results

Sample Report
ITAP’s TPQ System

Team Diagnosis
Agreement
(About Successes)
Importance of team to company’s
future success
Absence of power and control issues
Ability to express ideas and opinions
freely and openly
Treating team members with dignity
and respect
Clarity of roles and responsibilities
Level of trust
Disagreement
(About the Need for
Improvement)
Opportunity to learn of comments
about the work of the team
Availability of necessary resources
Clarity of team objectives
Ability of team members to step
outside their areas of responsibility
for the good of the global
organization
Disagreement
(About Successes)
Whether team members have the
necessary skills to resolve unexpected
problems
Agreement
(About the Need for Improvement)
Group communications
Team effectiveness
1
3 4
2
Positive Results
(High Average)
Issues Identified
(Low Average)
Agreemen
t (Low SD)
Disagreement
(High SD)

Agreement about Successes
1. Agreement (About Successes) = Low
SD (High Team Alignment) and High
Average (Positive Results).
• Many respondents agree that results in
this/these area(s) are good.
 Successes are to be celebrated.

Agreement about the Need for
Improvement
2. Agreement (About the Need for
Improvement) = Low SD (High Team
Alignment) and Low Average (Issues
Identified)
•Many respondents agree that results in this
area can be improved.
Team members should be able to focus
quickly on generating potential solution.

Disagreement about
Successes
3. Disagreement (About Successes) = High
SD (Low Team Alignment) and High
Average (Positive Results).
Although these areas show positive
results, clarification is needed around the
reasons for disagreement.

Disagreement about the Need
for Improvement
4. Disagreement (About the Need for
Improvement) = High SD (Low Team
Alignment) and Low Average (Issues
Identified).
Need to clarify why these issues have
been raised and the reasons for
disagreement.

24
Clients’ Testimonies about ITAP’s Tools
and Approaches
You showed your commitment to building our relationship by giving us
content up front, before we even had an agreement.
German/US American Medical Devices Company
This is impressive work. You have captured the voices of each of the
groups. Thanks – we know you've gone beyond the contract.
VP of Diversity at a global pharmaceutical company
Without hesitation, ITAP exceeded our very high expectations. We will
look forward to partnering with you again in the future.
Organizational Effectiveness Group Manager at a global Financial services company
Before
During
After
©2019 ITAP International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

25
Catherine Mercer Bing
CEO, ITAP International, Inc.
Managing Director, ITAP Americas, Inc.
707 State Road, Suite 106
Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
(W) +1.215.860.5640
(M) +1.609.937.1557
http://www.itapintl.com
cbing@itapintl.com
SKYPE: CatherineBing
©2019 ITAP International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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