Light In Action Learning

Light is a cultural symbol that we often associate with revelation, illumination or enlightenment. In English idiom, we may see a person or group in a good – or bad – light. We talk about shedding light on someone or something. We use a light bulb moment to describe the experience of a sudden, perhaps serendipitous, realisation or discovery. Light is a common image in spirituality too; for instance, in the Christian depiction of Jesus as the light of the world, Judaism’s Hanukkah with its eight lights, and the Hindu tradition of Diwali, the festival of lights. It’s as if, drawing on its literal meaning, we associate light with seeing, perhaps in a fresh light, what is there more clearly.

Action Learning Associates’ Ruth and I found ourselves curious recently about this idea of light in relation to action learning. I had written an assignment at the end of my postgraduate psychological coaching studies called, ‘Walking a Path of Light’. The title was inspired by comments from my tutors and fellow students who, at the end of the course, had reflected to me as feedback: ‘You are a shining light’, ‘You brought a beacon of light’, ‘You brought light to the group, to all of us.’ This felt very significant for me. Similarly, one of Ruth’s South African colleagues had written a poem about her after working together in Egypt. We were struck again by this theme and imagery of light:

‘She led us towards the light. I still struggle, daily, to try to live what I learnt from her. With her lightest yet firmest facilitation touch. Listening to learn, not reply. Through open questions, not prefabricated answers that die as they leave our lips but refuse to become unsaid and degrade like recycled plastic on every turn. One day, perhaps, we can move on, from this curse of being born to explain. Still, I am asking, how does one think, and say, and live, all that?’ Ruth and I both confessed that it somehow feels uncomfortable to talk about ourselves in this way, even in this blog, as if it sounds arrogant or breaches an unspoken code about the value and importance of humility.

Yet there is something that matters here. Action learning is sometimes regarded simply as a process that has a raft of skills associated with it; principally to stimulate insight and create solutions through posing and grappling with critical questions. This feels a bit reductionist to us. My own beliefs and values lay at the core of my practice and, although the people I’m working with will be unaware of these explicitly, they may experience them and their effects intuitively as light. Likewise, Ruth’s influence and impact rest not only on the application of her expertise, but on the power of her unique personal style and presence as she enables groups to find and generate new light too.

What does light evoke for you? How could it enhance your Action Learning facilitation and practice?

Ruth Cook and Nick Wright are Directors at Action Learning Associates