Leadership Development with Action Learning

Explore the role of critical action learning in professional growth

On this two-week course, you’ll learn how to develop key leadership competencies using elements of critical action learning (CAL). You’ll discover how this contemporary approach contributes to the development of leadership skills and how to embed CAL practices into your current processes.

Assess the importance of leadership development in today’s business environment

Building on the work of leading academics in the field of leadership development, you’ll explore whether leaders are born or made and identify the seven essential attributes of 21st Century leadership.

With this knowledge, you’ll be able to focus your development in the right areas, using CAL to effectively enhance your skills.

Enhance your professional development by combining action learning and critical thinking

Making the distinction between traditional action learning and CAL methods, you’ll learn how to analyse organisational problems to drive decision making and find solutions.

You’ll discover how to combine partnership and engagement, recognition of practical knowledge, and deliberation, reflection, and transformation to apply CAL in your own context.

Develop your leadership skills using critical action learning techniques

Having explored the theory that underpins CAL, you’ll then learn how to apply this framework in practice by forming Action Learning Sets (ALS).

You’ll learn how to ask open-ended questions to help foster creativity in your team, and the processes needed to deliver a successful ALS.

You’ll finish this course understanding how CAL promotes teamwork, better communication, and conflict management, while managing the self and others. You’ll be able to embed CAL practices into your processes and develop a leadership style that is creative, collaborative, and responsive.

This course is designed for supervisors, managers, and leaders who want to develop their skills and capabilities in leadership.

It’s also suitable for those wishing to further their career by preparing for future management and leadership roles with an understanding of leadership learning and development practices.

• Introduction to Leadership Development with Action Learning
• Welcome and Course Overview
• Leadership Development and Key Attributes
• Critical Thinking and Action Learning
• Summary
• Critical Action Learning as a method to promote leadership development 
• Week 2 overview
• Critical Action Learning and Development
• Critical Action Learning in Practice
• Questioning as a key principle of critical action learning
• Process and Success with Critical Action Learning
• Summary