PurposeThe purpose of this paper, based on reflections from practice, is to shed light on the realities of using walking as a tool for learning and development. This is done through an initial analysis of longitudinal reflective data spanning seven years and connecting these reflections to the concepts: being-in-the-world, belonging and Ba.Design/methodology/approachThis research takes a practice based phenomenological and reflective approach. The value of this approach is to seek a new understanding, through three distinct conceptual frames, of the effective use of walking within management development.FindingsThe findings connect three conceptual approaches of being-in-the-world, belonging and “Ba” to the practicalities of delivery, thus encouraging practitioners and designers to deeply reflect on the role of walking in management development.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation is that this is largely a personal story exploring the impact of an intuitively developed set of interventions. Despite this, the paper represents a unique and deep interpretation of walking as a mechanism for management development.Practical implicationsThe paper concludes with three recommendations to practitioners wanting to use walking in management development programmes. These are: facilitators need to be familiar with their surroundings; they should look for spaces and places where participants can connect and build relationships; and organisers and sponsors need to recognise how walking not only consolidates knowledge but can help create knowledge too.Originality/valueThis is a unique, seven-year longitudinal study that broadens the theoretical focus of walking as a mechanism for management and leadership development that combines the theoretical lenses of being-in-the-world, belonging and “Ba”, the authors believe, for the first time in research on management development.

This paper deals with the on-going practice of a critical action learning set who come together to meet their needs for coaching supervision as a group of executive coaches working from, and within, the University sector in South Wales. The reasons for the successes of, and the challenges around, this practice of four years standing have been articulated using an academic backdrop. The use of multi-factorial supervision has been heralded as being able to give a more rounded form of supervision which, despite its challenges, has, in this example, stood the test of time. Further data are required to try to understand if this form of supervision provides better coaching to the executive field in South Wales and beyond, and what can be learnt from the practice of supervision in general.

This article is the second in an occasional series of papers that attempt to articulate different approaches to coaching practice and should be read in conjunction with the first article about working with finger puppets (Turner, 2016). Both articles illustrate a set of different approaches to further coaching practice that seeks to support innovation and creativity amongst the coaching fraternity. Although walking-coaching is not entirely new as an approach (Read, 2016), coaching can too often be portrayed as a static event in closed offices or more informal spaces such as cafes. Such approaches can have a psychological dimension such as outlined in Bachkirova (2014) and Spinelli (2014), both of which highlight the ways in which learning can be considered as emergent as humans experience their own ways of being in the moment and in the environment.

In this opening chapter we seek to address three purposes. First we outline the focus of the field guide book – experiential learning. Experiential learning in leadership development has been dominated by outdoor (and indoor) activities such as the spiders' web. However, the ability of such activities to capture the complexity of leadership practice is rather restricted. We explore this point and suggest there is much need for alternative experiential processes that are more suited to the development of leadership practice. Second we outline the chapters of the book that provide a spectrum of approaches that have been developed and tested in the 'field' of leadership development. All of the approaches are fundamentally aligned to advancing leadership practice through reflection. Third the chapter seeks to illustrate a style of writing that is commensurate with a field guide. We seek to be direct and engaging; rooted in theoretical arguments yet accessible and connected to everyday practice; provocative and reflexive. The chapter concludes by arguing for reflection and practice to become an essential part of organizational leadership. To that end we offer up the notion of the 'leadership practice field' and pose the question 'how can we enable those who lead to practise leading'.

This paper is written to outline our ideas on rituals and reflective places and how this thinking has emerged through our writing, facilitation and reflections around critical action learning and critical leadership. We attempt to show the conceptual framework that underpins our vision of Critical Leadership and how out of this work we have begun to develop new action learning techniques which we believe help to make the action learning we teach and practise, more critical. In describing these concepts of criticality we consider the tripartite elements of each of the three concepts we call Critical Leadership. That is 'knowing, being, doing'; 'space, place and pace' and 'thinking, feeling, willing'. We then go on to demonstrate how these three concepts helped us to shape our new action learning technique entitled 'The Coliseum'. We believe that this new action learning technique enhances the likelihood of critical action learning taking place by underscoring key elements such as encouraging feedback, initiating deep listening, promoting challenge and, perhaps, in the end, precipitating enlightenment.

The resource review we examine here is provided by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild http://www.philosophersguild.com/Finger-Puppets/). On the company’s website they comment: “. . . we have discovered that people seem to really like the giants of our culture reduced to little finger puppets . . .” In particular, we consider the use of the “finger puppets” to generate a liminal moment (Hawkins & Edwards, 2013) in management education. Liminal moments have been described as “moments in and out of time” (Delanty, 2010, p. 31). A sense of “neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony” . . . that allow for the “realm of pure possibility” (Turner, 1967, p. 95). We explore the use of this resource as a liminal tool and its value to management education.

This article presents the findings of a participative action research project into how arts-based inquiry can revitalise equality and diversity organisational practices. We demonstrate that the arts-based methodologies introduced enabled participants to explore the meanings they brought to equality and diversity work, by creating a liminal space for learning. We illustrate our findings through an exploration of how participants engaged with the inquiry, the learning about equality and diversity that took place in the workshops and the challenges and opportunities of translating this into change practice in the workplace. The article's originality lies in its analysis of poetic writings, dreams and visual artefacts created in the context of participative inquiry. Engaging with tacit knowledge extended understanding of the contribution that arts-based, aesthetic inquiry can bring to organisational practice, and more specifically towards restoring the transformative potential of organisational practices to promote equality and diversity.

Involvement in a number of action-learning programmes and associated development opportunities has led the Professional Development Centre Limited to question the relevance of a strict adherence to the ‘rules’ of action learning as described by Reg Revans. A deliberate focus of one such programme to a financial services organisation offered some insights into the challenges of introducing action learning into the field. Pressures on organisations of time and business expedients might make them believe that action learning is too slow a technique to offer real rewards. However, elements of the action-learning story do resonate in the workplace, key concepts that appear to ‘stick’ are listening, questioning and equality. The utilisation of these skills enhances leadership and organisational development and can still provide a useful set of actions to aim for. This is especially true in problem solving and the way in which respect and equality can re-create a different environment or development space.