Reg Revans
Encyclopedia
Reginald "Reg" William Revans (May 14, 1907 – January 8, 2003) was an academic professor
, administrator and management consultant who pioneered the use of Action learning
. He was also a long jump
er who represented Britain
at the 1928 Summer Olympics
in Amsterdam
where he finished 32nd in the long jump event
. At the first British Empire Games
, in 1930, he won the silver medal in both the long jump and triple jump competition.
, where his father was a marine surveyor. As a boy he saw his father receive a visit from seaman’s representatives after the wreck of the RMS Titanic. He recollected attending the funeral of Florence Nightingale
with his mother.
In the late 1920s he was a doctoral student in astrophysics
at the University of Cambridge
. A Commonwealth Scholarship in 1930 took him to study astrophysics and astronomy
at Michigan
, and on his return to Cambridge as a fellow to Emmanuel
he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory
under Lord Rutherford and Sir J. J. Thomson
. There were five Nobel
prizewinners in the department, but Revans found them humble enough to share their puzzlements and to listen, rather than claiming to know and be able to instruct. Revans always remembered Albert Einstein
saying to him: "If you think you understand a problem, make sure you are not deceiving yourself." It was here that Revans began to develop his thinking on the role of 'non-expert' in problem solving, distinguishing between knowledge
and wisdom
in so doing.
He moved into education to become assistant education officer for Essex
(1935–1945) and then director of education for the National Coal Board
from 1945 to 1950.
It was at the Coal Board that Revans did much of the early work on developing action learning, working alongside E. F. Schumacher
(author of Small is Beautiful) and Eric Trist
, whose theories about socio-technical systems have also had an important influence on organisation development. Revans then became the first professor of industrial management at the University of Manchester
(1955–1965) but left to develop the inter-university action learning programme in Belgium
.
Revans strongly held that the key to improving performance lay not with 'experts' but with practitioners themselves. Hence he devised Action Learning as a process whereby the participant studies his own actions and experience in conjunction with others in small groups called action learning sets.
universities and 23 of the country's largest businesses, Revans' collaborative approaches succeeded in raising Belgium's industrial productivity growth rate above that of the USA, Germany and Japan.
Revans was subsequently awarded with the nation's top honour by the King of Belgium.
Revans made furniture as a hobby, played the trumpet and painted — even illustrating small books for his children. As well as being knighted by the King of Belgium, in 1997 he was awarded the freedom of the City of London
. Revans died in Wem
, Shropshire
on 8 January 2003.
s of management
education
or organisational development, not least because of his scorn for experts and his championing of ordinary people
. However, his ideas are taught at The Revans Centre for Learning and Research, part of the Salford Business School
at Salford University and they are applied in many organisations. His techniques have been applied in many organisations and by management consultant
s and academics including Mike Pedler and Alan Mumford in the UK,and Michael Marquardt, Yury Boshyk, Robert Kramer and Joe Raelin in the USA.
Recently the Revans Centre for Action learning
has moved to Manchester Business School
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
, administrator and management consultant who pioneered the use of Action learning
Action learning
Action learning is an educational process whereby the participant studies their own actions and experience in order to improve performance. Learners acquire knowledge through actual actions and repetitions, rather than through traditional instruction....
. He was also a long jump
Long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point...
er who represented Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
at the 1928 Summer Olympics
1928 Summer Olympics
The 1928 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Amsterdam had bid for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, but had to give way to war-victim Antwerp, Belgium, and Pierre de...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
where he finished 32nd in the long jump event
Athletics at the 1928 Summer Olympics - Men's long jump
The men's long jump event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the 1928 Summer Olympics. The competition was held on Tuesday, July 31, 1928.Forty-one long jumpers from 23 nations competed.-Medalists:-Records:...
. At the first British Empire Games
1930 British Empire Games
The 1930 British Empire Games were the first of what later become known as the Commonwealth Games, and were held in Hamilton, in the province of Ontario in Canada from August 16–23, 1930....
, in 1930, he won the silver medal in both the long jump and triple jump competition.
Early life
He was born at PortsmouthPortsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, where his father was a marine surveyor. As a boy he saw his father receive a visit from seaman’s representatives after the wreck of the RMS Titanic. He recollected attending the funeral of Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
with his mother.
In the late 1920s he was a doctoral student in astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. A Commonwealth Scholarship in 1930 took him to study astrophysics and astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
at Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, and on his return to Cambridge as a fellow to Emmanuel
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...
he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory
Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory....
under Lord Rutherford and Sir J. J. Thomson
J. J. Thomson
Sir Joseph John "J. J." Thomson, OM, FRS was a British physicist and Nobel laureate. He is credited for the discovery of the electron and of isotopes, and the invention of the mass spectrometer...
. There were five Nobel
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
prizewinners in the department, but Revans found them humble enough to share their puzzlements and to listen, rather than claiming to know and be able to instruct. Revans always remembered Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
saying to him: "If you think you understand a problem, make sure you are not deceiving yourself." It was here that Revans began to develop his thinking on the role of 'non-expert' in problem solving, distinguishing between knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
and wisdom
Wisdom
Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and...
in so doing.
He moved into education to become assistant education officer for Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
(1935–1945) and then director of education for the National Coal Board
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
from 1945 to 1950.
Action Learning
- Main article - Action learningAction learningAction learning is an educational process whereby the participant studies their own actions and experience in order to improve performance. Learners acquire knowledge through actual actions and repetitions, rather than through traditional instruction....
It was at the Coal Board that Revans did much of the early work on developing action learning, working alongside E. F. Schumacher
E. F. Schumacher
Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. His ideas became popularized in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s...
(author of Small is Beautiful) and Eric Trist
Eric Trist
Eric Trist was a British scientist and leading figure in the field of Organizational development . He was one of the founders of the Tavistock Institute for Social Research in London.-Biography:...
, whose theories about socio-technical systems have also had an important influence on organisation development. Revans then became the first professor of industrial management at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
(1955–1965) but left to develop the inter-university action learning programme in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
Revans strongly held that the key to improving performance lay not with 'experts' but with practitioners themselves. Hence he devised Action Learning as a process whereby the participant studies his own actions and experience in conjunction with others in small groups called action learning sets.
Belgium
After resigning from Manchester University, Revans moved to Belgium where he headed the Inter-University project, which had been set up to improve the ranking of Belgium in the organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development league. Working with fiveuniversities and 23 of the country's largest businesses, Revans' collaborative approaches succeeded in raising Belgium's industrial productivity growth rate above that of the USA, Germany and Japan.
Revans was subsequently awarded with the nation's top honour by the King of Belgium.
Later life
During the 1970s and 1980s he travelled round the world several times and wrote his most famous books: Developing Effective Managers (1971); The Origins and Growth of Action Learning (1982) and ABC of Action Learning (1983).Since the 1980s Revans has worked with public and private sector organisations, in the UK and internationally, advocating the process of action learning as a way of enabling and empowering people to learn with and from each other.Revans made furniture as a hobby, played the trumpet and painted — even illustrating small books for his children. As well as being knighted by the King of Belgium, in 1997 he was awarded the freedom of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
. Revans died in Wem
Wem
Wem is a small market town in Shropshire, England. It is the administrative centre for the northern area committee of Shropshire Council, which has its headquarters at Edinburgh House in the centre of Wem. Wem railway station is on the Shrewsbury to Crewe railway line...
, Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
on 8 January 2003.
Legacy
Revans is not remembered as one of the best known guruGuru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
s of management
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
or organisational development, not least because of his scorn for experts and his championing of ordinary people
John Doe
The name "John Doe" is used as a placeholder name in a legal action, case or discussion for a male party, whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. The name is also used to refer to a male corpse or hospital patient whose identity is unknown...
. However, his ideas are taught at The Revans Centre for Learning and Research, part of the Salford Business School
Salford Business School
Salford Business School is a business school located 3 km west of Manchester city centre in the Maxwell Building on the Peel Park Campus of the University of Salford. It is one of the University's twelve constituent academic departments...
at Salford University and they are applied in many organisations. His techniques have been applied in many organisations and by management consultant
Management consulting
Management consulting indicates both the industry and practice of helping organizations improve their performance primarily through the analysis of existing organizational problems and development of plans for improvement....
s and academics including Mike Pedler and Alan Mumford in the UK,and Michael Marquardt, Yury Boshyk, Robert Kramer and Joe Raelin in the USA.
Recently the Revans Centre for Action learning
Action learning
Action learning is an educational process whereby the participant studies their own actions and experience in order to improve performance. Learners acquire knowledge through actual actions and repetitions, rather than through traditional instruction....
has moved to Manchester Business School
Manchester Business School
Manchester Business School is the largest department of the University of Manchester in Manchester, England. According to Bloomberg Business Week's ranking of the world's best business schools the MBS MBA is ranked third in the world...