Space to Think-Why Action Learning?
Coming down from the Summer
Still basking in the glow of the Summer holidays and the benefits of taking time out from work to spend time with my family whilst focusing on some self-care. I am someone who tends to have many projects on the go at any one time; I have many interests and take a ‘tapas’ approach to my professional life; spinning lots of little interesting plates!
In the Summer, I tend to reduce my working days for 6 weeks, so I have some time to recover from a demanding job and create a bit of head space to relax and reflect. It is also time to reconnect with my family and over the past 3-4 years, I have been very intentional about carving out time and space for to disconnect from work and reconnect with myself and my family. This doesn’t mean that I don’t get overwhelmed at times with work, family commitments and all the deadlines! But I have learnt the importance of creating time for myself to process.
The power of reflection
As September gets underway, I am excited about delivering Lumen’s 1st day retreat, in November. Lumen was founded because of the need to create time and space to get away from the day-to-day commitments and ‘noise’.
Our retreats focus on holistic well-being; we want you to come away from the experience feeling refreshed and with a clear sense of what you need to do to thrive. I have found action learning a handy tool for developing your reflective practice skills. Building a ‘reflective muscle’, especially when you have a busy professional and personal life, builds resilience, which is why Lumen Retreats offers action learning as part of the programme. Here are 3 benefits of action learning on retreat:
1. When you choose to go on retreat, you have already chosen to remove yourself from the business of your life. Our programme encourages journalling, which will help you capture your observations as you retreat from your day-to-day and tune into yourself again. This is the perfect opportunity to explore a challenge you might be experiencing, where fresh eyes and perspectives can help shift a previously ‘stuck’ situation.
2. ‘Our professional challenges are often grounded in the personal’- I often say this when I start working with a new action learning cohort. Action learning is essentially peer coaching and is often used in a professional setting but can have just as much impact on the challenges we experience in our personal lives.
3. Action learning helps you to understand your natural, go-to response to resolving challenges in your life and then gives you the tools to view things from several perspectives. You will come away with the session with an action plan to help you move forward once you are back in your day-to-day life. Action Learning puts the responsibility to act, or not, on you and the only person you are accountable to is yourself.
Lumen offers Action Learning so that when you return from the retreat, you have more clarity on what you need and a plan on how you might get there.
