Reg Revans: ABC of Action Learning - Book Review

This is one of very few books that have changed the way I look at life. I have read a great number of business books and usually in the middle of the book, about page 170, is the novel idea the author wants to put across. This is not one of those books.

My copy, a 1983 imprint, has fewer than 70 pages of content but has so many ideas that were startlingly original to me.

It is not an easy book to read, it’s not light reading, but it amply repays the time needed to appreciate the content.

Reg Revans died in 2003 after a long life. His promotion of self-discovery and the distinction between the activities of talking and doing did not make him too popular with the “establishment”.

Perhaps the most famous idea is the Learning equation:

L = P + Q

where P is Programmed knowledge, ie books, taught subjects and Q is Questioning insight, ie informed experimentation, thought.

The equation neatly encapsulates the manager’s need to have knowledge and then learn from the environment to achieve success.

In fact he distinguishes between managing and administering. Administering is using Programmed knowledge and issuing orders whilst managing is getting something done, achieving in the real world.

“..one has to know not only what is good, but how to do it”.

His views on consultants and other experts definitely coloured the ethos of Motivation Matters Limited.

He said that consultants work by “…piecing together fragments of their past prescriptions to other clients..”. We do not do this.

Of course consultants will remedy the problem today but leave the organization less able to cope in the future as the consultants had the Questioning insight and the Learning experience. We do not do this either.

Revans uses the term “accoucheur” in the sense of a “managerial midwife” as a good model.

Rather than apply the consultants Band-Aid the accoucheur helps in the creation of something new. We want to do this.

There is so much more in this book. Please read it!

Date : 01-03-2005