looping the loop

Lots of new learning this week!
Here's one I hadn't come across before: Argyris & Schön's three levels of organisational learning (1978).

Seriously simplified, these are:

• single loop learning - find out what has gone wrong, & fix it. This tends to preserve the status quo (an organisation's practices & assumptions) regardless of what's happening 'out there'.


• double loop learning - find out why it has gone wrong, & fix the underlying causes. This can enable an organisation to change its habits, in response to external change.


• deutero learning - find out how best to do the first two (learning about learning). This can enable an organisation to be ready for external change before it even happens.