Organisational learning
Chris Argyris
1923 – 2013
Espoused theory against theory-in-use names the gap precisely; double-loop learning asks whether the governing variable, not the tactic, was wrong.
Read alongside: Sense · Shape
- Start with
- Theory in Practice (1974, with Donald Schön)
- Where they resist the book
- Argyris found the gap nearly universal, including in those who study it. The diagnosis is easier to accept than to apply to oneself.
Works worth the time
Theory in Practice · 1974
With Donald Schön. Espoused theory against theory-in-use — the gap most organisations manage rather than close.
Read further
Where Argyris appears
Behaviour is contagious in ways declaration is not.
Bandura's social learning explains why a stated value loses to an observed one every time. Argyris's espoused theory versus theory-in-use names the gap precisely. And the familiar biases — availability, confirmation, hindsight — are most active in exactly the ambiguous conditions where sensing matters.
A move you cannot see the effect of is not a move.
Double-loop learning asks whether the governing variable, not the tactic, was wrong. Meadows's leverage points rank where intervention actually bites: paradigms and goals above parameters and buffers. Together they discipline the appetite for visible action of low consequence.