Glossary of terms used on this site

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Action Learning

Action learning is a method for individual and organisational development. Working in small groups, people tackle important organisational issues or problems and learn from their attempts to change things. (Source: Action Learning for Managers, by Mike Pedler)

Action Learning was developed by the late Reg Revans and is based on the principle of regular and rigorous “learning by doing”. In essense, groups of managers or other individuals come together periodically to work on real life organisational problems. They form a group (the action learning set) that has a set advisor who acts not as a teacher but as a facilitator / resource person. The aims of action learning are to develop the ability of the managers or individuals to pose entirely new questions, to help them recognise their existing experience for future problems, to develop and change organisations by helping managers to see their strengths and weaknesses, and to create a momentum to go on dealing with future problems through a continuous process of learning and development. (Source: AMED.)

Active Listening

This is a way of listening that focuses entirely on what the other person is saying and confirms understanding of both the content of the message and the emotions and feelings underlying the message to ensure that understanding is accurate.

Activity Systems

Such a system is composed of sub-systems that combine to produce an outcome. For example, if a doctor is the system in focus then they rely on rules, instruments, a community, division of labour and a patient to be active as a doctor. If you focus on a nurse, they may serve the same patient, but their activity system will be different. These and other sub-systems must flow together if their is to be a seamless service for the patient. The whole system is in a state of dynamic change. The patient can be the object of the system in one moment and it's subject the next. Collective activity (which is composed of lots of small actions) is connected to the same object or motive of which the individual participants may not be aware. But individuals engage in actions that meet a need or goal. The challenge is to connect collective objectives and personal goals to give direction and energy to the system. This is often described as linking vision and action. Businesses see these actions as commodities with prices.

Adaptation

An attribute that an organism has to secure its survival or reproduction. It can respond to changes in its environment to remain viable in that environment.

Advocacy

Advocacy is the process of taking and working for a particular side's interests in a conflict. Lawyers engage in advocacy when they represent a client in a legal proceeding. Defendants can also engage in advocacy themselves, arguing for their own position in negotiation, mediation, or a political debate. Any attempt to persuade another side to consider your demands offered on behalf of another is advocacy.

Alignment

This happens when the actions of employees directly supports the key goals of the organisation. It therefore requires clarity about the key goals of the organisation, commitment to initiatives that promote the key goals and accountability for actions that affect those goals. When there is a coherent and meaningful connection betwee strategic goals and frontline activity it sometimes referred to as the "golden thread". Coaching works when the actions taken count towards achieving the desired outcome.

Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a process that focuses on leveraging an organisation’s core strengths rather than seeking to overcome or minimise its weaknesses. It is based on a deceptively simple premise: that organisations grow in the direction of what they repeatedly ask questions about and focus their attention on.

Appreciative Inquiry uses a four-stage process:

DISCOVER: Identifying organisational processes that work well. DREAM: Envisioning those processes that would work well in the future. DESIGN: Planning and prioritising processes that would work well. DESTINY (or DELIVER): Implementing the proposed design.

As AI becomes a regular way of working, individuals at all levels and in all functions identify best practices that the organisation can build on in order to respond to new challenges. The acts of spreading that knowledge and initiating action become routine.

Archetypes

Predefined patterns of behavior that we are each born with. You display your archetypal psyche in the way you think, feel and act. Archetypes comprise psychological patterns derived from historical roles in life, such as the Mother, Child, Trickster, Servant, etc., as well as universal events or situations, including Initiation, Death and Rebirth.

Autopoiesis

The tendency of nature to be autopoietic explains one of life's mysteries - how we create and recreate ourselves as independent entities whilst retaining our unique identity. Every cell in the body is replaced with a new one every seven years. This change serves to resistant to unwanted change as the genetic and memetic systems are refreshed. We reject anything that we do not recognise as "us". It enables our bodies to reject viruses and our minds to reject ideas that are interpreted by our cognitive and biological processes to be a threat to our survival.

Beliefs

The thoughts we use to guide our decisions and actions, although we tend to forget and see them as indisputable facts. With any action a belief comes first. We find evidence to support our beliefs in our experience. Once we've got a belief, we tend not to question it, until a bad experience forces us to.