Teaching Smart People How to Learn by Chris Argyris

My notes and takeaways

Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash

I picked up this gem of a book from a recent book sale and while it’s a short read (about 70 pages), it features quite a few interesting lessons, examples, case studies and actionable takeaways that I thought I’d share in this short Sunday post.

The challenge for highly successful professionals is the idea behind the single-loop and double-loop learning. The author illustrates the difference between the two through a thermostat. A thermostat that automatically turns on when the temperature reaches 10 degrees celsius is analogous to single-loop learning (i.e., the professional that sees that they have made a mistake and then goes to correct it). A thermostat that thinks about why it is turning on at 10 degrees celsius and whether there is a more efficient way of heating the room is analogous to double-loop learning (i.e., the professional that sees they have made a mistake and tries to understand their thought process and the steps they took which led to the mistake).

Highly successful professionals are very good at single-loop learning. They have good grades in school and often do not experience any or rarely experience failures. When they encounter a failure, they attribute it to outside causes or blame others around them. The challenge then is to create teams and…