In the 1930s, a young man called Reg Revans was studying for a
PhD in astrophysics at Cambridge University. He was working
alongside eight Nobel prize winners. None of them worked in his
field, but he noticed that when they were faced with difficult
research problems, they would sit down together and ask one another
lots of questions. No one person was considered more important than
any other and they all had contributions to make, even when they
were not experts in a particular field. In this way they teased out
workable solutions to their own and one another's problems.
Revans was struck by how powerful this technique was. When he
went to work for the Coal Board, he introduced the technique there.
When pit managers had problems, he encouraged them to meet together
in small groups, on site, and ask one another questions about what
they saw in order to find their own solutions, rather than bring in
'experts' to solve problems for them. The technique proved
successful and managers wrote their own handbook on how to run a
coal mine.
This is how action learning was born. Some years later,
Professor Reg Revans formalised the cogent and tested theory which
is now the cornerstone of many management and organisational
development programmes.