More about Reg Revans:
--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
From: "Pete Mann" <
mzdsszpm@man.ac.uk>
Organization: Manchester University
Date sent: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 15:09:10 +0000
Subject: Reg Revans
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Pete.Mann@man.ac.uk
Priority: normal
Dear Colleagues
Reg Revans died last night, about 7 pm, in a nursing home in Shropshire.
Derek and I wanted to inform all of you, as we have known Reg for
probably 20 years. During this time he has influenced the thinking of
hundreds of IDPM study fellows, through meeting with innumerable
programme groups in Crawford House and inviting dozens of individuals to
his former home in Altrincham. A few of you will remember Reg; those of
you who never met him might notice he has remained a Visiting Professor
with our Institute - listed in our current Prospectus.
In the coming weeks much will be said nationally and from different
parts of the globe about Reg and the contribution he has made over the
decades to understanding the ways that managers think, behave and learn.
As the father of a developmental philosophy called action learning, he
believed that a person could not learn anything significant in this life
without taking responsible action, nor could one take responsible
action without learning something significant. He was a wise man and,
not unsurprisingly, was ridiculed by many clever people.
Reg did his PhD in astrosphysics, claims he dusted the chalkboard for
Einstein, and in the Cavendish Laboratory observed that Nobel Prize
winners would offer research seminars to their colleagues (who knew
nothing of each other's specialist investigations) only when their own
research had come unstuck: when the researcher did not know what to do
next, then - and then only - was a seminar scheduled. And so arose core
tenets in action learning of comrades in adversity asking fresh
questions out of ignorance. Things change in higher education . . .
July last year Merrick Jones, who used to be with us, and I visited Reg
in Wem. He was sitting at a table in a day room and was pleased to see
us both. He talked with Merrick about visiting him in Sri Lanka in the
late 1980s, and he recalled the trip on behalf of The British Council he
and I had made together to Nepal 13 years ago. We had walked one weekend
for hours through Kathmandu valley. Reg had taken pleasure in that. He
was 82.
Perhaps he might also have taken pleasure had he known yesterday
afternoon of the PhD student undergoing his viva with us. The focus?
action learning. The External? Professor David Botham, Director of the
Revans Institute at the University of Salford. And Reg would have
chuckled with my pre-registration advice to Joe three years ago when his
proposed doctoral title included the term 'action learning': "Delete
all references to action learning in your proposal if you want to get
registered with this university", I quickly emailed him.
Reg was fond of pointing out that in facing uncertainty the amount of
our learning needs to exceed the amount of our change. Otherwise the
species won't last. A good current legacy for us in 2003 from a
monumental departed friend.
PeM
9th January 2003
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