Action learning (also known as experiential learning) is a teaching method of having learners participate in a real-world situation, complete activities under direct supervision, and reflect on their experiences afterward. It works fairly simply—participants are invited to collaborate through key questions.
The goal? To inspire action, catalyze ideas, and transform interactions internally or with customers.
Applying the principles of action learning to your sales and marketing activities is very similar to the concept of space repetition. Space repetition is how you create a sequence of events your learners complete, where they accomplish something every time they do those actions. For example, when you’re starting with a brand new product, you may ask your team members to complete the following steps:
- make sure the product is presentable;
- label each item in the product line (this will enable people to see it on shelves);
- create an inventory sheet for customers;
- have someone take a photo of the products in real life;
- post on social media that the new product has arrived; and
- send out an email notice about its arrival.
Each step builds on what came before it and contributes to one another’s success in getting the word out about the new product as quickly as possible without any confusion or mistakes.
Reinforcement is how you reward or acknowledge your customers for doing what they’re asked to do, such as completing space repetition. Give them some tangible benefit like recognition or feedback—things that are meaningful or personally relevant rather than just patting yourself on the back for a job well done.
One of the most important action learning principles is identifying mental blocks and hooks. The goal? To make the process fun, engaging, and motivating for customers. Mental blocks occur when there is a barrier to learning or action. Mental hooks are questions that help customers break through barriers.
The first step in using this principle in your marketing activities is identifying what mental blocks exist for your audience members.
- What are their concerns about doing something new or entering a new environment?
- Do they fear being judged by their peers or worry about making mistakes?
These are all possible mental blocks you can work on breaking down with action learning questions. It’s important to recognize these issues before you start designing your program because it will give you a better idea of how you can engage people and set them up for success.
The second step is identifying which hooks would effectively reach out to your audience and help them overcome those mental blocks. Action learning questions typically come in pairs: one question provides an answer that helps create confidence, while the other helps break down barriers and makes sense of ownership over the process. Let’s say your audience is overwhelmingly concerned with how they appear to others at networking events; one action learning question might be, “What percentage of people interact with me at these events?” Another question might be, “What percentage do I think I have a chance at connecting with someone I know without appearing like I
Before applying action learning to your marketing, it’s important to set expectations. This can often be done by talking to internal and external practitioners and even customers in the field. They can provide valuable feedback and insights on incorporating action learning into their work. Some other questions you should ask include:
- What do you expect your results to be?
- How are you measuring success?
- Who are the customers or prospects in this situation?
- What are the competitive offerings?
- Is there a fast feedback loop?
- Can we eliminate anything that’s not essential?
Scaffolding is one of the tactics in action learning that makes this method successful. When used effectively, it will help you to simplify and standardize your process for designing a marketing program. The idea is to create a pre-action planning checklist, which includes all the steps necessary for the activity and any materials needed for implementation. In the case of marketing, you can use this list to create scaffolds for your marketing activities. For example, if you’re developing an event marketing campaign, you might want to include a list of required actions such as:
- Create a call-to-action statement
- Develop collateral
- Create visuals
- Develop relevant content
- Create social media content
There are many ways in which marketers can use these checklists to ensure they have the complete information they need before they start their campaigns. This will save time and minimize errors that could potentially lead to poor results.
When it comes to action learning, one of the most popular methods is the learning cycle. This method has four steps:
- Make and test predictions
- Share knowledge
- Take action and reflect on the experience
- Share knowledge again
The key to this learning process is its circular nature—it starts at step one repeatedly until you’re ready to take the next step in your learning cycle. For action learning to be effective, you must make and test predictions about what will happen due to your actions. This process provides feedback from which you can learn and adjust subsequent actions accordingly. When you make predictions, it’s crucial that they can be tested! This ensures that your learnings are grounded in reality and aren’t just theoretical concepts or speculations about how things might work in practice. To ensure your predictions are realistic, try testing them with small experiments before jumping into a full-scale campaign or project.