Facilitating action learning with Chinese SME entrepreneurs: a practitioner's reflection

This account of practice reflects on facilitating action learning with Chinese SME entrepreneurs across 26 sessions in five Chinese cities – Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Dalian. It traces a practitioner's journey from an uneasy engagement with a branded, certification-based action learning methodology (WIAL) toward a more principles-based practice grounded in Revans’ original philosophy of emergent, question-driven inquiry. The work of Pedler and Abbott on creating learning space, and Reynolds’ critical perspective on the institutionalisation of action learning, are central to this transition. The account explores how action learning was adapted to a cultural context in which questioning authority is discouraged and ‘losing face’ inhibits candid inquiry, and where SME entrepreneurs face distinctive challenges in talent, resources, and market relevance. Key reflections include the persistent tension between offering opinions and asking questions, the facilitation dilemma of when to intervene versus when to hold back, and the power of follow-up questioning and diverse peer perspectives in creating breakthrough moments. The account argues that action learning's transformative power lies not in methodology ownership or certification, but in the facilitator's capacity to create conditions for authentic inquiry.