What is Triple Loop Learning?

^{Image source: Alex Atkinson}

Recently, my high school junior son co-founded a robotics team at school. After months of budgeting, securing sponsorship, building, and late-night coding (my son’s specialty), the team took part in their first regional competition. What they demonstrated was a perfect example of kaizen. Their early matches went well for a rookie team, but showed some deficiencies compared with the more established teams. But throughout the weekend, they used their time between matches not only to strategize, but also to rebuild and recode their robot. They had been working for weeks to have the robot lift itself off the ground at the end of each game (a move that would earn them extra points); they hadn’t been able to get it working by the beginning of the competition, but after a few matches, they got it working just as they’d hoped (a proud dad moment came for me when we went to congratulate the team, only to overhear a few of them saying it was because my son “coded it perfectly”). Throughout the course of the weekend, though, they not only looked at the problems they knew they needed to fix; they also looked at the 30+ other teams, and questioned their own assumptions about why they were approaching things the way they were; avoiding the sunk cost fallacy by scrapping things they’d worked on and instead pursuing new avenues for success. They switched from offensive play to strategic defensive play, and rather than playing to earn the most points themselves, they made collaborative alliances with other teams that served both them and their partners well. As a result, they not only earned a place in the playoffs but they survived two rounds before getting knocked out; not bad for a rookie team!

At work you may not be competing in weekend-long robotics competitions, but the approach the team took exemplified not only kaizen (continuous incremental improvement through small changes), but also the idea of Triple Loop Learning.

Triple Loop Learning is often credited to the work of Harvard Business School professor Chris Argyris (whose Ladder of Inference we have written about before), but confusingly, his academic work defines what is commonly known as “triple loop learning” as “double loop learning“; it seems that since Argyris’ original 1977 definitions, others added a new double loop, pushing his original to a triple loop position. As such, triple loop learning doesn’t share a single defining definition; different sources define the second and third loops in distinct ways. Nonetheless, the widely-used conceptions of three loops are synthesized below in ways that can be helpful for us in the workplace.

So what are the three loops of learning?

1. Single Loop Learning: Identifying a problem, and learning what to do about it in this one instance. For example, a client complains about having to speak to so many different people in your organization to get their needs met. You may fix this client’s problem by identifying yourself or someone else as their primary contact who will be the liaison for everything on your end. Another example: After learning of prejudiced comments and microaggressions from one employee towards another, you mete out corrective action to the perpetrator, and assure the victim that this behavior is not tolerated. In single loop learning, you can be nimble; imagine turning a kayak in the water.
2. Double Loop Learning: Identifying and changing the practices, norms, and policies that have led to such problems. In the first example, you might look at how many points of contact a client might have in your organization, and look at ways to reduce that number; perhaps you even assign each client a primary contact – an advocate who handles all the internal work themselves, so the client builds a relationship they can trust. In the second example, you work with HR and/or your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion representatives to address systemic issues and history within your organization that would support prejudice. In both cases, double loop learning is a longer process that may take months or years. Single loop learning will need to happen in the short term also, but may be a trigger to initiate double loop learning. In double loop learning, you can change direction, but not as nimbly; imagine turning a multi-person canoe.
3. Triple Loop Learning: Identifying and changing the overall organizational rationale and context; Learning about learning – “Why this way instead of another way?” In the client example, you might look at your organizational mission and values – if your policies and systems don’t align with those, consider which need to change. Maybe it’s your policies that need to change, but maybe your stated mission and values aren’t reflective of what the organization really sees its mission and values to be. In the prejudice example, you may look at how your organizational experiences of prejudice fit into the larger cultural context; if your organization can make mission/values changes to contribute to wider culture, what would that look like? As with double loop learning, this is not a short-term solution, but it also goes beyond strategy changes; this is more soul-searching internal work. Think, for example, of the many organizations who went beyond the standard performative response to the murder of George Floyd and made lasting systemic changes to their organizational mission, values, and structure. In triple loop learning, changing direction takes time and work; imagine turning a large oil tanker.

This Week’s Tip:

Look at your day today as you read this. Consider what type of learning you’re doing right now with the situations in front of you. Which situations require you to respond quickly and be nimble? Which of those situations could trigger some double loop thinking? Who else would need to be involved? And which should trigger triple loop thinking? Who can you schedule conversations with to raise awareness and gain support in turning the ship around? If you’re not the captain of the oil tanker, what would it take to get the captain to want to move in that direction?

Try this out this week, and let us know how it goes! We’d love to hear from you.

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