On November 5th, the opening ceremony of 2012 AMA ELEL Forum Shanghai and WIAL East China was successfully held. CBN made an exclusive interview with Michael Marquardt, President of WIAL and a distinguished guest of the forum.

On November16th, CBN released a report entitled as "Action Learning: Explore Solutions with Good Questions". The full text is as follows:

Action Learning: Explore Solutions with Good Questions
By Liu Qiong, Yan Qin;     Source: CBN;     At 01:20, 2012-11-16

Abstract: Action learning is a working and learning methodology for enterprises where actual problems are solved through team decisions, when capability and organizational development are improved at the same time, thereby to facilitate the implementation of "strategies".

After eight years of struggles, Sony - the entertainment industry giant recently made a compromise to Apple, and decided to have their music works open to Apple's iTunes store in Japan. Not long ago, Sony also reached a music licensing agreement for the overseas market, allowing users to use mobile devices to online access music stored on its server.
This seems to mark the end of an era.
Sony Music Entertainment used to enjoy a great time and publish many historic records, but now it’s increasingly vulnerable to the huge impact of digital music which can be transmitted through Internet and wireless network, and easy to copy or play.
Record industry slump has caused a significant decrease of revenue. Should Sony follow the digital music trend, or boycott that to maintain its original dominance? In case of compromise, what kind of cooperation can best ensure its own sustainable development?
7 high potential talents from different departments in Sony Music form an Action Learning group, work together for three days, carefully study the problems behind declined revenue, find solutions through mutual questions, and finally decide to put artists to the more important position among incoming sources, and fulfill future work with artists packaging, global concerts, other sales channel integration... This decision is thereafter well executed, with obvious effect.
Since then, Sony Music frequently uses Action Learning approach to solve major problems. "By using this method, not only will problems be solved, but each team member’s leadership will also be improved," said Michael Marquardt, President of WIAL and Professor of Human Resource Development and International Affairs in George Washington University at the Action Learning Forum held by the American Management Association.
"The return on investment of Action Learning is at least 50:1," added Michael Marquardt.

Good questions lead to great solutions
"Action Learning" theory was first introduced by Reg Revans. In 1995, Michael Marquardt and Reg Revans, partners of the World Institute for Action Learning (WIAL) finally designed the rules and components of Action Learning after years of co-exploration and research.
Action learning is a working and learning methodology for enterprises where actual problems are solved through team decisions, when capability (individual capability and organizational leadership) and organizational development (team building/learning team) are improved at the same time, thereby to facilitate the implementation of "strategies".A typical Action Learning process starts from basic rules established by coaches. The coach asks a participant to express the problem for solution in 2 to 3 minutes, and then it’s time to ask questions. Anyone can ask questions to any others. Declarative statements are only used by participants to answer.
In this process, the coach often asks the team how they think about their work, where is good and where they wish to do better. Coaches use every intervention to dig into deeper consensus problems, till moving onto solution.
Eventually, the entire team finds a very creative way to solve practical problems, instead of fire fighting everywhere.
Unlike traditional brainstorming, Action Learning has two basic rules: One is to solve a pressing problems but general problems. More attention ought to be paid to questions’ quality. Once a team is formed, all statements have to response to questions. "Any great invention is brought out by a good question. The better your questions are, the closer you are to the best result," Michael Marquardt says.
2. The Action Learning coach aims to facilitate learning. The coach needs to control entire process, including: introducing Action Learning rules and leadership to team members at very beginning, and facilitating team members’ learning by two interventional questions to ensure that they raise qualified problems and the individual leadership is enhanced. This coach can either be introduced from the external, or internally selected.

Leadership improvement and problem solving
In the past 15 years, along with the development of Action Learning, hundreds of world-famous enterprises have improved their organizational performance by this approach, and numerous colleges have integrated Action Learning into their teaching methods.
For example, Boeing has always been dedicating to an effective leader development project, to enable its managers to think and practice from global perspective. In 1999, senior managers of Boeing participating in Action Learning training experience three stages in Action Learning, timely adjust and grasp problems in learning, and achieve learning objectives after repeated Action Learnings, feedbacks and assessments in the process of action –feedback – evaluation – planning - further action. Finally, 50% participants confirm their global capacity has significantly improved through the project, and 90% of them confirm they’ve learned from both the project and other participants and would support the project to progress.
In China, problems that many enterprises face which contain opportunities and challenges during their transition period is: in a rapidly changing business environment, how to implement their established strategies, how to establish an integrated strategic implementation framework and capability, how to continue improving strategy implementation’s effect, and how to form an internal mechanism to enhance corporate actual performance.
In 2010, Chow Tai Fook Jewelry, which is under rapid expansion, sets more ambitious development goals, in which domestic headquarters expect its sales can increase to a higher level, with annual net increment of 200 stores. On the other hand, they expect the leadership of the middle and top management in six main regions improved, they therefore choose Action Learning to accomplish these goals.
Firstly, Vice General Managers in six main regions of Chow Tai Fook participate Action Learning training, during which they use the balanced scorecard tools to sort out data on finance, market, internal process and human resource development, and find talents development stimulates the overall performance, which is exactly what they ignored before.
After finishing the training, Vice General Managers used Action Learning approach to establish Action Learning teams and find out the best development measures suitable for individual regions. For example, after learning and discussion, West China Region finds they should improve key customer events and management that are previously ignored; and finally this initiative’s implementation of significantly boosts actual sales.
They acknowledge that: the sales performance of Chow Tai Fook in Chinese Mainland has increased by 20% in the past one year, thanks to the adoption of Action Learning.