Peer assist towards action learning

Last year I worked with a Government client to help develop action learning groups, so that public officials could work together to understand more about public engagement, and how to run engagement programmes. It didn't work out as planned, and I wonder if things might have been easier if I been able to show the Flash tutorial on Peer Assists, created by a partnership between Bellanet and the University of Ottawa. It was spotted (like so much other good stuff) by Nancy White.
The idea of action learning groups is that people come together in small groups to work on a real problem raised by one of the members. They share ideas, take action, bring results back to the group, and reflect on what's happened, as described here. It's a powerful method and the Peer Assists Flash tutorial sets out a similar approach.
In practice the programme I worked on was problematic because we had little time, people were at different stages of understanding, in different departments, very busy, and with different preferences for learning. Some liked courses, others manuals, and a few liked tackling practical problems in groups. Although the groups didn't work too well, we and the client learned a lot from the experience - not least that it is a mistake to start with a given method. You need to look at circumstances, learning preferences and much more. Maybe discussion around a Flash tutorial would have raised those issues earlier.
I understand that a cross-government community of practice on public engagement is now emerging, following our recommendations and review work undertaken by our client. A community of practice video would be a challenge to make.