Experiential learning is currently prominent in management—including ‘critical’ management, pedagogy. This article reflects on the contribution of experiential learning to management education and on the resistance it has sometimes evoked, both from academics and managers. On the basis of these observations I suggest that the significance of experiential learning is not only as an alternative way of learning but in the social and political values that it brings to both educational and organizational contexts. In view of recent post-heroic developments in conceptions of leadership, I speculate that there could be currently a better match between experiential learning approaches and organizational practice than had previously been the case.