Action research is conceived as a feet-on-the-ground process--a way of addressing and improving the everyday experiences and concerns of people who deliver real goods and services in an organisation, through the process of finding out new things--i.e. research in the broadest sense. This article explores the question of how action researchers do their work, on the ground with sensitivity to the political and ethical challenges that await them, in their own organisations. The concern in this article is for the action researcher, who has been devoiced, deskilled, and defriended in their attempt to engage inquiringly into their own practice with colleagues. How do they address the ethical concerns that legitimately exist in all forms of research in a way that takes account of this paradigmatic disconnect, and how might they go about it in a way that opens up the possibility for inquiry by side-stepping this minefield? The author argues that ethical generosity is at the core of a quality piece of action research. An "ethics of generosity" opens up a space of genuine inquiry, and allows people to speak about their experience without exposing others to blame, and worse, shame. Developing what can be known (i.e. an epistemology) that is grounded and interesting to a range of co-participants who are free to express their own diversity requires some creativity and craft. This is more of an emergent art than a deterministic science, and to show what that might look like, the author offers a story of his research into masculinity in organisations.