Tag: facilitation

Menter a Busnes (MaB), an economic development company based in Wales, UK, has been using group processes and specifically Action Learning with rural businesses since 2003. Action Learning is fundamentally a coaching process with the coachee being supported by a facilitated group of like-minded individuals who must be willing to learn and to change. The process is designed to develop management capabilities, instigate change and empower and encourage group members to create viable and sustainable businesses for the future. Action Learning is used by MaB’s management development programme for Welsh farmers and foresters, namely Agrisgôp. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal mixed-measures study designed to evaluate the impact of the Agrisgôp programme. Three different questionnaires were developed and completed by over 1,000 Agrisgôp group members pre-, mid- and post-group participation. The results indicate that Agrisgôp’s Action Learning intervention is successfully encouraging and supporting its group members to seek out, instigate and embrace change. The respondents reported increased confidence, improved communication skills, were better able to apply new information to their business, had a more positive attitude to change, and were more likely to have a long term business strategy as a consequence of the Agrisgôp group intervention. The ...

The use of group processes to encourage innovation and to transfer best practice is relatively novel in the agricultural sector. However, Menter a Busnes, a Welsh economic development company, has been utilising this approach for over a decade. Since successfully tendering in 2011 to deliver the main elements of the Farming Connect programme funded by the Welsh Government under the Rural Development Plan, they have been developing and expanding group principles with a view to engaging a greater number of farmers for a variety of purposes and with a broad range of different groups. This paper outlines how the company initially became involved in group processes through the design and launch of the Agrisgôp programme which utilises Action Learning to develop ideas and resolve issues. Examples of some of the projects undertaken by the groups are given along with experiences relating to group dynamics and facilitation. The broader context of the current Farming Connect programme is described and the variety and nature of group processes currently being utilised for knowledge transfer is discussed. Two studies undertaken in relation to groups are outlined. The first considers whether personality can be used to predict effective facilitators of organisational change and the second ...