Turn training into practice with structured peer learning that sticks.
A workshop creates new thinking. An Action Learning Set (ALS) puts that thinking to work.
An Action Learning Set closes the gap between knowledge and practice. It’s a facilitated follow-up session, typically 1-2 hours, where participants bring real challenges from their actual working lives and work through them together, using structured peer inquiry rather than more input.
Just real problems, good questions, and clearer thinking.
How an Action Learning Set works
Participants join in small groups of three or four. Each person takes a turn as the presenter, describing a live challenge from their team or role. The rest of the group’s job is simply to ask questions. Not offer solutions, not share their own experience, just ask genuinely curious, open questions that help the presenter think more clearly.
Each round runs 15-20 minutes: a few minutes to present the problem, around ten minutes of questions, and five minutes for the presenter to reflect on what has shifted. Between rounds, the whole group reconvenes briefly to share themes and insights before returning to the next round.
The session closes with a whole-group reflection and a commitment question: what are you going to do next?
What participants get
An ALS is valuable precisely because it doesn’t add more theory: it creates space to process what’s already there. Participants regularly report that the experience of being asked good questions, rather than given answers, produces more useful thinking than advice would have.
By the end of the session, participants will have:
Worked through a real challenge from their own team or context
Reflected on how to put their new knowledge and skills to work
Practised asking questions rather than jumping to solutions: a valuable skill in itself
Heard how peers are navigating similar challenges
Left with at least one clear next step
ALS Format and details
Format: Virtual or in-person Group size: Up to 15 participants (single facilitator) or 40 participants (two facilitators), working in groups of three or four. Facilitated by the same people who delivered the training or workshop.
Action Learning Sets are available as an optional add-on to any of our organisational training workshops or masterclasses, typically scheduled two to six weeks after the main session. They can also be booked as a standalone follow-up to previous training.
Participants receive a short introduction before the session and a one-page reference guide to support them during the ALS rounds.
Who is an ALS for?
Any group that has completed a workshop or training session together and wants to bridge the gap between learning and doing. It works particularly well for leaders, managers and team leads who are actively trying to apply new practices, and encountering the friction that comes with real organisational life.
Contact us to find out more or to book a workshop with your teams.
