Facilitating conversational learning in a project team practice

Citation

Sense, A.J. (2006), "Facilitating conversational learning in a project team practice", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 14 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2006.04414aaf.002

Facilitating conversational learning in a project team practice

Facilitating conversational learning in a project team practice

Sense A.J.Journal of Workplace Learning (UK), 2005 Vol 17 No 3, Start page: 178 (16 pages)

Purpose – seeks to provide an empirical insight into the facilitation dilemmas for conversational learning in a project team environment. Design/methodology/approach – is an outcome of a participative action research process into the dynamics of situated learning activity in a case study project team. As part of their organizational change project (which included an explicit project goal of developing their collective and individual learning competencies) the case study project team initiated and undertook a series of participative “learning-how-to-learn” workshops. These workshops were “learning spaces” that were centered on engaging “conversations” to both initiate and promote interpersonal understanding and critical reflective practice between the participants. Findings - In evaluating the discontinuities experienced between the planned phases and activities in these “learning space” workshop processes, three key lessons that the participants learnt about facilitating conversational learning in this setting are identified and elaborated on. Research limitations/implications – is based on a case study of the learning activities of one project team. The opportunity exists to repeat the study in different projects and other group settings. Practical implications – offers practical guidance to learning professionals and learning practitioners in how to provide a receptive conversational context for learning between people. Originality/value – illustrates the power of conversational approaches to nurturing learning activity. The lessons identified constitute heuristics to pragmatically aid conversational learning among people in project team “learning spaces” and in other similar group settings, where conversations are considered core to the learning development process.Style: Research paper

Keywords: Learning, Learning methods, Project management