Abstract
This chapter describes the philosophy and approach of Reginald Revans (1907–2003), a UK scientist and educational innovator. It traces the influences on his thinking, from his early imbibing of Christian and Quaker traditions to the later impact of world philosophies especially including Buddhism. His contribution to our understanding of change management processes gives a central place to learning, both personal and institutional. Revans’ approach emphasizes the practical and moral significance of personal involvement in action and learning, as a means of resolving the intractable social and organizational problems that we find around us. Over a long life, Revans was ceaselessly active in testing his ideas which were always in a state of emergence. He leaves a rich heritage of proposals and possibilities for present practitioners. Five of the legacies of his work are discussed in this paper: Virtual Action Learning, Critical Action Learning, The Wicked Problems of Leadership, Unlearning, and the Paradox of Innovation.
With many thanks to my colleagues who commented and contributed to this paper – Yury Boshyk, Tom Bourner, John Burgoyne, Ghislaine Caulat; David Coghlan, John Edmonstone, Jeff Gold, Bernhard Hauser; Jim Stewart & Russ Vince.
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Further Reading
Heifetz, R. (1994). Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
For More on Revans and the Development of His Ideas
Boshyk, Y., & Dilworth, L. (2010). Action learning: History and evolution. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Pedler, M. (Ed.). (2011). Action learning in practice (4th ed.). Farnham: Gower.
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The journal Action Learning: Research & Practice from Routledge, Taylor & Francis. www.tandtonline.com/actionlearning
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For More on Revans’ Legacies
Brook, C., Pedler, M., Abbott, C., & Burgoyne, J. (2016). On stopping doing those things that are not getting us to where we want to be: Unlearning, wicked problems and critical action learning. Human Relations, 69(2), 369–389.
Caulat, G. (2012). Virtual action learning: A new genre for powerful learning. In S. Voller, E. Blass, & V. Culpin (Eds.), The future of learning: Insights and innovations from executive development. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Dickenson, M., Burgoyne, J., & Pedler, M. (2010). Virtual action learning: Practices and challenges. Action Learning: Research and Practice, 7(1), 59–72.
Vince, R. (2008). ‘Learning-in-action’ and ‘learning inaction’: Advancing the theory and practice of critical action learning. Action Learning: Research and Practice, 5(2), 93–104.
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Pedler, M. (2016). Reginald Revans: The Pioneer of Action Learning. In: Szabla, D., Pasmore, W., Barnes, M., Gipson, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49820-1_20-1
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Revans, Reginald: The Pioneer of Action Learning- Published:
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49820-1_20-1