How to facilitate critical action learning

Critical Action Learning (CAL) is a well-established approach to action learning. However, it has not necessarily been clear to action learning practitioners what makes CAL ‘critical’ and what are the implications in practice. In CAL, the facilitator has a key role in helping the set to engage with underlying emotions and power relations that are inevitably embedded in learning sets, and that both promote and prevent learning. The paper explains the main ideas of critical action learning, why facilitation is important, and how to facilitate CAL. Examples are provided from the authors’ practice and eight key components are presented as a guide to facilitating CAL. The aim of the paper is to improve the action learning community’s knowledge of how to facilitate critical action learning and when it is appropriate to utilize this approach.