HOW DO TRANFORMING ORGANIZATIONS LEARN?
In a context marked by complexity, acceleration and constant change, organizations face needs and challenges that, in many cases, demand a response while still in the diagnostic phase. In this scenario, the question I have been asking myself recently is not so much how organizations are structured, but rather how they learn. More specifically: what makes some organizations, or teams, learn with greater depth and truly transform themselves, and what makes others simply adapt to keep doing the same thing in a slightly different way? To approach an answer, I will draw on the theory of single-loop and double-loop learning, formulated by Chris Argyris (1923–2013), theorist and professor at Yale and Harvard, and Donald A. Schön (1930–1997), philosopher and professor at MIT. This theory, formulated almost fifty years ago, remains in my view fully valid for understanding why some organizations, or teams, transform, adapt and respond better to complexity than others (Argyris & Sch...