Single-loop learning was developed by Dr. Chris Argyris, a well-respected author and Harvard Business School professor in the area of metacognitive thinking. He defined single-loop learning as “learning that changes strategies of action (i.e. the how) in ways that leave the values of a theory of action unchanged (i.e. the why).” Single-loop learning is a learning process where people, groups, or organizations modify their actions based on the difference between expected and actual outcomes.
Component
Description
Origin
Developed by organizational theorist Chris Argyris in the 1970s.
Overview
Single-Loop Learning is a term used to describe the process of learning from mistakes or failures without challenging or changing underlying assumptions or mental models. It involves making adjustments within the existing framework to improve performance.
Key Elements
– Error Correction: Single-Loop Learning focuses on identifying and correcting errors or deviations from established norms or goals.
– Preservation of Assumptions: It often maintains the underlying assumptions and mental models that led to the error.
– Incremental Improvement: The emphasis is on making incremental changes or adjustments to achieve better results.
How It Works
In Single-Loop Learning, when a problem or mistake is identified, organizations or individuals typically seek to correct it within the existing framework. This may involve refining processes, addressing specific issues, or adjusting actions to align better with predefined goals or norms. However, it does not involve questioning or challenging the fundamental assumptions or mental models that led to the problem.
Applications
– Operational Improvements: Commonly used in organizations to enhance efficiency and effectiveness by addressing operational issues.
– Project Management: Applied to project management to identify and rectify deviations from project plans.
– Focused Problem-Solving: Suitable for addressing specific issues without disrupting established processes.
Drawbacks
– Limited Innovation: It does not challenge underlying assumptions, limiting potential for innovation.
– Repetitive Errors: May result in recurring issues if root causes are not addressed.
Key Takeaway
Single-Loop Learning is a problem-solving approach focused on correcting errors or issues within existing frameworks. While it is efficient for addressing specific problems, it does not challenge underlying assumptions or mental models. This can limit its potential for innovation and may lead to repetitive errors if root causes are not addressed. It is most effective for operational improvements and addressing straightforward issues.
Table of Contents
Understanding single-loop learning
Whether we care to admit it, every person thinks in a certain way based on their current beliefs and assumptions about the world. This thinking guides their actions (what they do) and also influences their performance (what they get).
As the individual experiences life, they continually assess outcomes to determine whether they occurred as expected or whether there were things that could have been done differently. This form of self-inquiry may be subconscious and unstructured, or more deliberate and formal.
Argyris defined this near-constant inquiry process as the detection of error. In single-loop learning, the error results when an individual isn’t where they want to be. Put simply, a difference exists between the expected outcome and the actual outcome.
Once an error has been detected, the individual must revisit their actions (and the strategies guiding them) to assess and develop new action strategies. Importantly, this must be done without altering an individual’s core beliefs or assumptions.
This process of developing new actions borne from the same thinking is the basis of single-loop learning. In an organizational context, single-loop learning encourages employees to consider alternative strategies that respect governing factors such as goals, values, plans, and rules.
The four steps of the single-loop learning cycle
There are four simple steps to a single-loop learning cycle:
Observe current outcomes – what happened, and how long has it been occurring?
Assess possible corrections – where did the individual, group, or organization deviate from the norm?
Develop action strategies based on the insights uncovered.
Implement the new action strategies and then observe current outcomes to repeat the process once more.
Limitations of single-loop learning
There are a couple of major limitations of single-loop learning.
For one, the approach only addresses the symptoms of a problem. By ignoring the problem’s root cause, it is likely to reoccur in the future. This issue is exacerbated because the approach does not consider that core beliefs and assumptions may be contributing to the problem in the first place. Many consider single-loop learning to be a band-aid solution at best, capable of producing nothing more than minor or short-term fixes.
Single-loop learning also assumes problems and their associated solutions to be close to each other in time and space. That is, the method does not consider any intangible factors that might be impacting events and processes. This means single-loop learning will rarely encourage creative or innovative solutions, instead defaulting to ideas that address deviations from more tangible actions, processes, procedures, systems, and strategies.
Examples of Single-Loop Learning
Performance Improvement: In a company, a team may notice that their sales numbers have been declining over the past few months. They observe the current outcomes, assess possible corrections, and develop action strategies to improve their sales performance. They may focus on refining their sales pitches, targeting new customer segments, or enhancing their marketing efforts while maintaining their core sales approach.
Fitness Goals: An individual aiming to lose weight sets a target of running five kilometers every day. After a few weeks, they realize that they haven’t achieved the desired weight loss. They observe their outcomes, assess their approach, and decide to add strength training to their routine while still maintaining their focus on running.
Academic Performance: A student who consistently gets low grades in math exams evaluates their study habits and approach. They identify areas of weakness, such as not seeking help when needed, and develop a plan to improve their math skills while keeping their overall study routine intact.
Case Studies
Restaurant Operations:
A restaurant notices a decline in weekday lunch sales. They implement a lunch special menu to attract more customers. They don’t evaluate the deeper reasons for the decline, such as possibly deteriorating food quality or slow service.
Customer Service:
A customer service department receives complaints about longer wait times on calls. To address this, they may introduce a callback feature. While this might reduce wait times, it doesn’t address the root cause, like why call volumes increased or if representatives are taking longer to resolve issues.
Software Development:
A software development team notices a spike in bug reports after releasing a new update. They quickly issue patches to address each reported bug without delving into why there was a surge in bugs in the first place, such as potential issues in the testing phase.
Retail Management:
A retail store identifies a particular product line that isn’t selling as expected. They run a promotional discount on that product line. While this might boost sales temporarily, they don’t investigate deeper issues, like if the product meets customer needs or if there’s a lack of awareness about the product.
Event Management:
An event management company receives feedback that their events often start late. They decide to push the start time of future events by 30 minutes. This might ensure punctuality, but it doesn’t address why events were starting late in the first place.
Healthcare:
In a clinic, patient wait times have increased. The management decides to hire more staff to handle the increased patient load. This might reduce wait times, but it doesn’t consider other factors, like if current staff is efficiently utilized or if there are bottlenecks in the patient processing system.
Banking:
A bank sees a decline in the use of their physical branches. They decide to renovate branches to make them more appealing. While this may attract some customers in the short term, it doesn’t consider the larger trend of customers preferring online banking.
E-commerce:
An online store identifies that many customers abandon their shopping carts before making a purchase. They introduce a discount for first-time buyers. This might increase sales but doesn’t address deeper issues like why customers abandon carts, such as complicated checkout processes or high shipping fees.
Public Transportation:
A city’s bus service receives complaints about overcrowding during peak hours. They decide to add more buses during these hours. While this may reduce overcrowding, it doesn’t explore other solutions like adjusting routes or considering alternate modes of transportation.
Manufacturing:
A manufacturing plant notices an increase in defective products. They increase quality checks at the end of the production line. This might reduce the number of defective products shipped, but it doesn’t investigate the root cause of the increase in defects, like potential issues with raw materials or machinery malfunctions.
Key Highlights of Single-Loop Learning
Modification Based on Outcome Differences: Single-loop learning involves making adjustments to actions based on the gap between expected and actual outcomes.
Preserving Core Beliefs and Assumptions: The learning process focuses on changing strategies and actions while maintaining underlying values and beliefs.
Continuous Improvement: The learning cycle is a continuous process of observation, assessment, strategy development, implementation, and observation again to refine actions and outcomes.
Addressing Symptoms: Single-loop learning tends to address immediate issues and deviations from expected outcomes, making it more suitable for short-term fixes rather than addressing root causes.
Limited Consideration of Intangible Factors: The approach may overlook underlying factors that impact events and processes, leading to solutions that focus on visible actions and strategies.
Not Ideal for Creative Solutions: Single-loop learning may not encourage innovative approaches since it primarily deals with deviations from existing processes and strategies.
Short-Term Results: While single-loop learning can lead to immediate improvements, it may not be sufficient for long-term and sustainable problem-solving.
Key takeaways:
Single-loop learning is a learning process where people, groups, or organizations modify their actions based on the difference between expected and actual outcomes. It was developed by the teacher and author Dr. Chris Argyris.
Single-loop learning can be described in simple terms via four steps. The individual observes the outcome, evaluates possible corrections, develops action strategies based on viable corrections, and then implements them. After implementation, the loop, or cycle, starts again as the impact of the new strategy is observed.
Single-loop learning has two major drawbacks. For one, it addresses the symptoms of a problem without paying any attention to the root cause. It also assumes problems and their associated solutions to be close to each other in and time and space.
fixed mindset believes their intelligence and talents are fixed traits that cannot be developed. The two mindsets were developed by American psychologist Carol Dweck while studying human motivation.
Both mindsets are comprised of conscious and subconscious thought patterns established at a very young age. In adult life, they have profound implications for personal and professional success.
Individuals with a growthmindset devote more time and effort to achieving difficult goals and by extension, are less concerned with the opinions or abilities of others. Individuals with a fixed mindset are sensitive to criticism and may be preoccupied with proving their talents to others.
Constructive feedback is supportive in nature and designed to help employees improve or correct their performance or behavior. Note that the intention of such feedback is to achieve a positive outcome for the employee based on comments, advice, or suggestions.
High-performance coaches work with individuals in personal and professional contexts to enable them to reach their full potential. While these sorts of coaches are commonly associated with sports, it should be noted that the act of coaching is a specific type of behavior that is also useful in business and leadership.
The training of trainers model seeks to engage master instructors in coaching new, less experienced instructors with a particular topic or skill. The training of trainers (ToT) model is a framework used by master instructors to train new instructors, enabling them to subsequently train other people in their organization.
Active listening is the process of listening attentively while someone speaks and displaying understanding through verbal and non-verbal techniques. Active listening is a fundamental part of good communication, fostering a positive connection and building trust between individuals.
Active recall enables the practitioner to remember information by moving it from short-term to long-term memory, where it can be easily retrieved. The technique is also known as active retrieval or practice testing. With active recall, the process is reversed since learning occurs when the student retrieves information from the brain.
The phrase “baptism by fire” originates from the Bible in Matthew 3:11. In Christianity, the phrase was associated with personal trials and tribulations and was also used to describe the martyrdom of an individual. Many years later, it was associated with a soldier going to war for the first time. Here, the baptism was the battle itself. “Baptism by fire” is a phrase used to describe the process of an employee learning something the hard way with great difficulty.
The Dreyfus model of skill acquisition was developed by brothers Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1980. The Dreyfus model of skill acquisition is a learning progression framework. It argues that as one learns a new skill via external instruction, they pass through five stages of development: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert.
The Kolb reflective cycle was created by American educational theorist David Kolb. In 1984, Kolb created the Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) based on the premise that learning is facilitated by direct experience. In other words, the individual learns through action. The Kolb reflective cycle is a holistic learning and development process based on the reflection of active experiences.
The Method of Loci is a mnemonic strategy for memorizing information. The Method of Loci gets its name from the word “loci”, which is the plural of locus – meaning location or place. It is a form of memorization where an individual places information they want to remember along with points of an imaginary journey. By retracing the same route through the journey, the individual can recall the information in a specific order. For this reason, many consider this memory tool a location-based mnemonic.
The Experience Curve argues that the more experience a business has in manufacturing a product, the more it can lower costs. As a company gains un know-how, it also gains in terms of labor efficiency, technology-driven learning, product efficiency, and shared experience, to reduce the cost per unit as the cumulative volume of production increases.
The Feynman Technique is a mental model and strategy for learning something new and committing it to memory. It is often used in exam preparation and for understanding difficult concepts. Physicist Richard Feynman elaborated this method, and it’s a powerful technique to explain anything.
Learning organizations are those that encourage adaptative and generative learning where employees are motivated to think outside the box to solve problems. While many definitions of a learning organization exist today, author Peter Senge first popularized the term in his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organisation during the 1990s.
The forgetting curve was first proposed in 1885 by Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist and pioneer of experimental research into memory. The forgetting curve illustrates the rate at which information is lost over time if the individual does not make effort to retain it.
Instructor-led training is a more traditional, top-down, teacher-oriented approach to learning that occurs in online or offline classroom environments. The approach connects instructors with students to encourage discussion and interaction in a group or individual context, with many enjoying ILT over other methods as they can seek direct clarification on a topic from the source. Instructor-led training (ILT), therefore, encompasses any form of training provided by an instructor in an online or offline classroom setting.
The 5 Whys method is an interrogative problem-solving technique that seeks to understand cause-and-effect relationships. At its core, the technique is used to identify the root cause of a problem by asking the question of why five times. This might unlock new ways to think about a problem and therefore devise a creative solution to solve it.
Single-loop learning was developed by Dr. Chris Argyris, a well-respected author and Harvard Business School professor in the area of metacognitive thinking. He defined single-loop learning as “learning that changes strategies of action (i.e. the how) in ways that leave the values of a theory of action unchanged (i.e. the why).” Single-loop learning is a learning process where people, groups, or organizations modify their actions based on the difference between expected and actual outcomes.
Spaced repetition is a technique where individuals review lessons at increasing intervals to memorize information. Spaced repetition is based on the premise that the brain learns more effectively when the individual “spaces out” the learning process. Thus, it can be used as a mnemonic technique to transform short-term memory into long-term memory.
Blended learning is a broad and imprecise field that makes it difficult to define. However, in most cases, it is considered to be a form of hybrid learning that combines online and offline instructional methods.
The term lessons learned refers to the various experiences project team members have while participating in a project. Lessons are shared in a review session which usually occurs once the project has been completed, with any improvements or best practices incorporated into subsequent projects.
Post-mortem analyses review projects from start to finish to determine process improvements and ensure that inefficiencies are not repeated in the future. In the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), this process is referred to as “lessons learned”.
Instructor-led training is a more traditional, top-down, teacher-oriented approach to learning that occurs in online or offline classroom environments. The approach connects instructors with students to encourage discussion and interaction in a group or individual context, with many enjoying ILT over other methods as they can seek direct clarification on a topic from the source. Instructor-led training (ILT), therefore, encompasses any form of training provided by an instructor in an online or offline classroom setting.
The 5E Instructional Model is a framework for improving teaching practices through discussion, observation, critique, and reflection. Teachers and students move through each phase linearly, but some may need to be repeated or cycled through several times to ensure effective learning. This is a form of inquiry-based learning where students are encouraged to discover information and formulate new insights themselves.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
