Arthur N. Turner

The Case Discussion Method Revisited (a)

Between 40 and 90 students of Organizational Behavior are sitting in an ampitheatre for a &dquo;case discussion.&dquo; What are they learning? Moving around in front of them, asking questions, restating and writing on the chalkboard some of the things which the students say, is an instructor who in a very real sense is &dquo;conducting&dquo; the discussion. How is what the instructor does influencing what is being learned?’ In short, what is going on here?

The "finger puppets":examining the use of artifacts to create liminal moments in management education

The resource review we examine here is provided by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild http://www.philosophersguild.com/Finger-Puppets/). On the company’s website they comment: “. . . we have discovered that people seem to really like the giants of our culture reduced to little finger puppets . . .” In particular, we consider the use of the “finger puppets” to generate a liminal moment (Hawkins & Edwards, 2013) in management education. Liminal moments have been described as “moments in and out of time” (Delanty, 2010, p. 31). A sense of “neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony” . . . that allow for the “realm of pure possibility” (Turner, 1967, p. 95). We explore the use of this resource as a liminal tool and its value to management education.

The impact of action learning: what difference are we making in the world?

Involvement in a number of action-learning programmes and associated development opportunities has led the Professional Development Centre Limited to question the relevance of a strict adherence to the ‘rules’ of action learning as described by Reg Revans. A deliberate focus of one such programme to a financial services organisation offered some insights into the challenges of introducing action learning into the field. Pressures on organisations of time and business expedients might make them believe that action learning is too slow a technique to offer real rewards. However, elements of the action-learning story do resonate in the workplace, key concepts that appear to ‘stick’ are listening, questioning and equality. The utilisation of these skills enhances leadership and organisational development and can still provide a useful set of actions to aim for. This is especially true in problem solving and the way in which respect and equality can re-create a different environment or development space.

Field Guide to Leadership Development

An edited book, edited alongside Steve Kempster and Gareth Edwards which seeks to address the more creative side of leadership development through edited chapters for practitioners and academics across the globe.

Critical action learning – rituals and reflective spaces

ABSTRACT This paper is written to outline our ideas on rituals and reflective places and how this thinking has emerged through our writing, facilitation and reflections around critical action learning and critical leadership. We attempt to show the conceptual framework that underpins our vision of Critical Leadership and how out of this work we have begun to develop new action learning techniques which we believe help to make the action learning we teach and practise, more critical. In describing these concepts of criticality we consider the tripartite elements of each of the three concepts we call Critical Leadership. That is ‘knowing, being, doing’; ‘space, place and pace’ and ‘thinking, feeling, willing’. We then go on to demonstrate how these three concepts helped us to shape our new action learning technique entitled ‘The Coliseum’. We believe that this new action learning technique enhances the likelihood of critical action learning taking place by underscoring key elements such as encouraging feedback, initiating deep listening, promoting challenge and, perhaps, in the end, precipitating enlightenment.