Single-Loop Learning is where you fix a mistake by changing your behavior… but your mental models, your world view, your core beliefs and the supporting assumptions remain unchallenged.
Double-Loop Learning takes you deeper: you examine the mental models, the beliefs, that drove your behavior in the first place. You take off your ‘glasses’ and examine the lens therein. You surface unspoken assumptions; you make invisible reasoning visible. Make it not only psychologically safe but obligatory to challenge and confront the status quo in a creative, constructive, solution-oriented way. Make the acquisition of CTS (Critical Thinking Skills) a hallmark of excellence, a Systems Thinking orientation a must, the role of Devil’s Advocate a norm, ‘being from Missouri’ and possessing a healthy skepticism foundational to the culture.
Obstacles to Practice of Double-Loop Learning
Defensive Mindset: Protect Identity/Self Image/Ego/Reputation
Confirmation Bias: Tendency to mainly see that which confirms existing beliefs
The Whirlwind: Day to day filled with urgent challenges, even if of less importance
Inertia/Risk Aversion: That’s how we’ve always done it; why should I stick my neck out?
Group Think: Including differing viewpoints being seen as ‘not being on board’ or even disloyal
Provincialism: Not Invented Here: nuanced version is heightened bar for outsider’s views, quicker acceptance of insiders
Short-Termism: Double-Loop takes time/energy/resources; benefits take time to surface, quick fixes get you a quarterly bonus
Toxic Myths re Strong Leaders: Never show doubt or vulnerability; changing your mind (even after new data!) seen as sign of weakness
Closing Quotes:
“You can’t change what you can’t talk about.” – Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey
“We do not see the world as it is, we see it as we are.” – Stephen R. Covey, 7 Habits, 1932-2012
“The biggest obstacle to learning something new is the belief that you already know it.” – Karl Albrecht, 1920-2014
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein, 1879-1955
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
Note: Every effort has been made to properly source any 3rd person material. I am, however, a voracious reader. If anyone finds any unattributed material, pls let me know asap and I will be delighted to give credit where credit is due.
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832