The professional development of a facilitator is a neglected area in the action learning literature. This article presents one example of such development. It is divided into three sections: firstly it describes the author's experience of being a set member on a newly-introduced Masters programme at a British university; secondly, it describes frameworks that are outside the usual action learning texts that enabled the author to articulate the politics of learning. The final section shows how the previous experience and theory were combined to influence the development of a facilitator style that was commensurate with the working environment. (Contains 4 tables.)