Double-Loop Learning

Double-loop learning means questioning the goals and assumptions behind an action, in addition to correcting the action itself.

Where it comes from

Harvard's Chris Argyris, who developed the idea with Donald Schön, used a thermostat as the image. A thermostat that turns on the heat when the room gets too cold is learning in a single loop. A thermostat that asked whether its setting made sense would be learning in a double loop.¹ In "Teaching Smart People How to Learn," Argyris observed that highly skilled professionals often find double-loop learning hard: they rarely fail, so they have little practice learning from failure, and they tend to get defensive when it happens.²

Where it goes wrong

The term is used for almost any lesson learned or team retrospective. Argyris meant something more demanding: examining the "governing variables" behind our actions, including our own reasoning and the rules we would rather leave untouched.

¹ Argyris, C. (1977). Double loop learning in organizations. Harvard Business Review, 55(5), 115–125.

² Argyris, C. (1991). Teaching smart people how to learn. Harvard Business Review, 69(3), 99–109.

Further reading: Argyris, C., & Schön, D. A. (1978). Organizational learning: A theory of action perspective. Addison-Wesley.