BM Thinking Out Loud

           The Capstone action learning project has been quite an experience. It began with learning about action learning and reflective questioning and listening. Then came getting to know our set members and practicing the action learning process. This was very awkward and forced at first. Learning to ask questions instead of making statements was not easy. It involved more than just training yourself to frame everything in a question. I had to begin by becoming aware of my own thoughts. I had to try to stop the life long habit of thinking ahead about my response while the other person is still talking in order to make myself focus on really listening. This is not easy and I clearly have not mastered this skill. Next, I had to learn to pay attention to and reflect on the learning of the group, in addition to the content of the conversations. This was also a challenge. I am still working to maintain this focus during set meetings.

            It is an interesting and positive aspect of action learning to begin set meetings by identifying a leadership skill that we want to focus on. I agree with Marquardt (2004) that the subconscious does continue to consider and mull over thoughts after they are no longer in the forefront of our minds. Speaking out the leadership skill that we want to improve is a sure way of getting it into our subconscious, as well as to help us to practice that skill, or at least pay attention to our use of it during set meetings.

            Of course the temptation to leave much of the reflective learning and questioning behind is great when it become ‘crunch-time’ and projects must be pulled together. However, in spite of this temptation, I believe our group continued to remember the tenants of action learning and usually did include them at every set meeting.

            I find that this kind of metacognition of both our own thinking while part of a group and the group’s collective thinking is really an important skill to learn. I know that having experienced this at work in our set meetings has made an impression on me and I now find myself realizing mid-conversation that I am thinking about what I am thinking and about the meaning that I and whoever else is in the conversation are making together. I will admit that I have always had a bent towards trying to figure out what motivates people and why they behave the way they do. It is, of course good for me to do the same for myself – ala – metacognition.

            As our time winds down and our timeline is extremely short, I find I am a lot less inclined to make the time for the reflective questioning and thinking that is necessary. I know that I will be very interested in that after the big presentation is over and we consider what went well, what did not, what lessons were learned, and what struggles were overcome – or not. There is a balance that has to be struck between being an action learning set and focusing on the reflective questioning and listening and being a problem solving group. I know that problem solving is not the purpose, however it must exist to some extent in order to get the work done.    

            At this point in our experience, I find it interesting that our final product requires so much problem solving type of work in order to be appropriate and useful even though that part of the process is really supposed to take a back seat in favor of action learning. I understand that it is our learning that really matters and what the client gets is really just a vehicle for our action learning experience. Yet, it sure doesn’t feel that way now.

            I’ll see how I feel in a week when it is all over.