Survival Leadership

Over this week, I’ll be doing an in-depth review of Optimizing the Power of Action Learning: Solving Problems and Building Leaders in Real Time by Michael J. Marquardt (Davis-Black Publishers, 2004). CEO’s and Leaders—put this book on your MUST BUY list.

This is the SECOND of several posts on Action Learning.

Action Learning is a problem solving, team building, and leadership development method…all wrapped around a single method. In short: You learn more by asking questions and listening, than by telling. One of my old professors said, “God gave you one mouth and two ears, so you could listen twice as much as you speak.” Many, many times my wife has reinforced this concept with me! The basic premise of Action Learning posits that 4-8 people working on a problem—if they ask (and respond to) questions to prompt thought in the problem owner—can solve most of our toughest problems. In the process, participants learn a lot about leadership…not the least of which are the powers of inquiry, respect, problem solving, and listening. Action Learning consists of 6 components: Problem, Group, Questions, Action, Learning, and Coach.

This week we’ll explore each one of the six discussed in Marquardt’s book.