Learning Alliances: Tapping into Talent

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (1999), "Learning Alliances: Tapping into Talent", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 6, pp. 57-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.6.57.19

David Clutterbuck′s Everyone Needs a Mentor (IPD, 1985, now 2nd edition, 1991) is well known for its topicality and common sense. He is a writer who makes management live, who uses up‐to‐date research, clear concepts and models, apt examples and a good sense of humour to get valuable points across to busy professional readers. Learning Alliances is no exception: it′s a thought‐provoking and substantially helpful read, of particular use to managers involved with people and reflecting on how to develop staff. The argument is simple and central: effective managers create a climate where learning is easy, learning alliances flourish. Managers play various roles ‐‐ coach (line manager, concerned with the task, mixing challenge with support), guardian (anything from guru and godfather to good fairy), networker/facilitator (good for building up social networks), and mentor (helping learners to make critical transitions of knowledge, work and thinking). Mentoring subsumes all the rest because a good mentor plays all the other roles, combining directive and nondirective, building up learners intellectually and emotionally.

This a well‐structured book ideal for trainers and reflective practitioners interested in learning more about learning, and, above all, those key “learning alliances” between more and less experienced staff which can lead to so much productive social and managerial interaction and progress. Sensitive to the counselling dimensions of such alliances (such as being learner‐centred, boundaries and trust), Clutterbuck′s straight‐forward approach will help readers understand better what to do for personal, group and organisational development. In a field awash with jargon and euphoria, this book keeps its feet on the ground and offers really good practical advice. His style makes it seem as if he′s talking to you, as if you know him as a friend, and that′s practising what you preach. Buy and read it!