Consultant Profiles

Ian McGill

Ian pioneered action learning in higher education in the UK for students on Masters' and undergraduate programmes, as well as for academic and administrative staff. Alongside his academic career Ian was able to combine membership of an English local authority.

Recognizing the limitations of purely lecturer/examination led postgraduate courses, Ian engaged in learning that centred on the learner. Action learning enabled Ian and colleagues to focus on the learner's needs via organizationally based projects, which drove the programmes without compromising academic requirements. The result was enhanced relevance of the programmes for participants who were able to utilize their own considerable work experience.

When Ian became independent he drew on action learning in enabling individual professional and organisational development needs of his clients. Clients have primarily been in the public sector reflecting Ian's experience and expertise.

Ian has drawn this wealth of experience in his publications and has in recent years developed action learning for independent sets.

Dr Anne Brockbank

Anne is a learning and development consultant, working with clients in a range of public and private enterprises. Her activities include : Therapeutic Coaching, Executive coaching and Mentoring; Action Learning; Facilitation and Reflective Learning, as well as Management Development in these fields. Anne’s approach is developmental and empowering, for both individuals and organisations, promoting deep and significant learning going beyond factual knowledge, offering the potential for learning in organisations which will equip them for an ever-changing future. Anne has completed a doctorate in Reflective Learning .

Anne offers therapeutic coaching to senior executives using a brief helping technique appropriate for work-place issues. As an associate lecturer at City University, and with senior management experience herself, Anne has developed innovative approaches to  mentoring and coaching.

Anne is also a registered BACP practitioner, working from a humanistic person-centred stance, within an integrative framework. She has worked as a counsellor and therapeutic coach  for over twenty years in a variety of settings and she sees her private clients in a central London location. Her work includes leadership issues, conflict at work, trauma, bereavement and relationship issues as well as depression and anxiety. Anne is also a qualified and experienced supervisor.

She is co-author with Ian McGill of Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education published in 1998 by the Open University Press, and she is co-editor, with  Ian McGill and Nic Beech, of Reflective Learning in Practice  published by Gower, in 2002,  as well as co-authoring  with Ian McGill, The  Action Learning Handbook  for Routledge-Falmer, published in 2004 and  Facilitating Reflective Learning through Coaching and Mentoring  published in 2006 by Kogan Page ( publications )