People often say that there are two groups of people, those that do it and those that write about it (and often teach it too). Sometimes in any given subject those two worlds meet, neigh collide. My dissertation last year was about evaluating an action learning programme, so as someone who does it, facilitates is and also has written about it (though hasn’t been published as yet) I guess that causes me to slightly straddle these two worlds. It would be true to say that I am slightly sad, given that I was more than a little bit excited about the prospect of meeting some of the people I have quoted in my dissertation and in other academic papers but I was and I did. Yesterday I returned from an intensive 3 days at the Henley Management college where the first ever International Action Learning Conference was held. Henley is a great place for a conference, it is right by the river Thames in a beautiful part of Oxfordshire and the College itself provides a range of older and newish buildings within some great grounds. From my bedroom window I could see the ducks being dragged up the thames by a strong current and young men in boats getting in some rowing practice in the opposite direction.

The conference itself was a mixture of slightly confusing academia, not always fully understood by the other academics in the room or indeed themselves at times and people’s accounts of the practice of action learning within various areas of the world including Bosnia, Wales and the USA to name but 3. As always, I left with a few more questions than answers and not all of those were about what I heard. Where did that man get the jacket that looked like it had been converted from a rug, why do some men where sandals without socks in March, and why do some people act like they have never seen wine just because they are not paying to drink it at the time? I also wonder why rather than create this them and us attitude they don’t work out how practitioners could help academics make themselves better understood and how practitioners could add a bit of theory into their practical ideas, or is that too simple?

So what about the men of my essays? Mike Pedler, John Burgoyne and Joe Raelin? Well it was great to know that they were pretty ordinary men who were able to speak in a way I could actually understand. It was great that they are prepared to challenge the assertions made by others and to give the impression that they don’t know it all yet. It was also interesting to note that some published academics still fall down at the same places as other less esteemed people. 45 powerpoint slides should never be shown to any audience in one showing, much less in a short lecture meant to be about 20 minutes and then followed by discussion and questions.

More telling on my return was that my family don’t know how to unload the dishwasher much less fill it again. They just washed up their dinner plates but nothing else. The kitchen (and teen son’s bedroom) was cluttered with plates, dishes and cups. They were apologetic but I get the impression not sorry. They obviously don’t want me to try leaving them for longer than 2 nights since they would never cope. I think they need some training on this matter but I fear I might have left it too late to start!