Learning to Learn Better

Hi there ????. Ready to lead? "Acts of Leadership" helps people, (irrespective of title or tenure), expand their leadership range one experiment at a time. Each issue shares a [pro/e]vocative definition of leadership, an idea and an experiment.

What's different now?

A question for you.

"What's different for you since we last spoke?"

I put this to my executive clients this week.

A few answered by pointing to clear outcomes they'd created. Others have created insight through behavioural experiments and shared their experiment or the emerging data.

And more than one has replied, “Nothing is different”.

I can't help but get curious about that response. And that led me to better quality questions that evoked something different for the client. As a result of this, I found that “Nothing is different” is rarely ever true.

It’s a matter of framing.

So this week I'm sharing the model of Triple-Loop Learning that has proven useful to my clients. But first things first...

A Definition…

"Leadership is... learning how to learn better."

An Idea…

Triple-Loop Learning

This version of the model makes it about the individual (you and your inner systems) rather than the organisation/system.

"Doing" (single loop learning)

Doing the same thing repeatedly whilst expecting a different outcome is the definition of madness.

Each time around the do-loop you compare the result to what you wanted and decide what to do differently next time, within the confines of the system.

It’s generally about compliance and driven by established norms, rituals and assumed best practices.

Single-loop learning sounds like this–

?? - “Am I doing this thing right?”

?? - “Is this output as it should be?”

It’s primarily about error correction, not root cause analysis.

It's effective for rehearsal and acquiring skills necessary to support consistency. And we often get stuck here.

Today work exerts a bigger-than-ever gravitational pull. It pulls us toward survival. With increased operational complexity and uncertainty our sight is drawn away from the horizon and more toward our present footing.

Gravity’s familiarity is comforting.

We get easily lost, circling, looking for an answer. We get fixated on achieving the unachievable and take too long to see when our efforts are best spent on more beneficial work.

A recurring theme my coaching clients have been battling consistently is “How can I be more strategic and less operational”.

"Thinking" (double loop learning)

If you can’t find the answer you want, look for a better question.

When experience shows that desired outcomes cannot be produced by the system then, practically speaking, you must look to change the system and constraints.

Different questions are asked in double-loop learning.

?? - “Am I doing the right things?”

?? - “What assumptions am I making here?”

Thinking expands beyond just actions in this loop, instead questioning assumptions, policies and beliefs.

It’s a place of Curiosity, Empathy and Powerful Questions– the Holy Trinity of a coach-like leadership style. And it applies to individuals too.

Another common coaching topic is collaboration in challenging professional relationships.

If (insert undesirable behaviours and results here), then know that you are complicit in this.

You co-create the patterns that play out in your relationships. And given that you’re the one working on expanding your leadership range then change starts with you.

?? - What is your role in creating or perpetuating those outcomes?

Start a different conversation. Break the patterns. Change how you respond.

?? - What happens when you bring more curiosity and empathy to the conversation?

?? - How do the questions change?

?? - What impact does that have on disrupting the typical patterns?

"Being" (triple-loop learning)

You expand the space of what is possible when you change the constraints of the system and challenge the assumptions and beliefs upon which thought and action are based.

When you discard identity stories that no longer serve you, or you update your beliefs about the world, you expand what is possible.

Imagine if you could shed your most limiting beliefs about what is possible, or appropriate, or expected of you, and instead know fully, in your bones, that something else was now available to you.

This is the third learning loop.

In the context of leadership, it’s expressed as showing up differently or just plain being differently.

When what you believe as possible expands you cannot help but show up differently. And when you show up (be) differently you think differently and do differently.

In Summary

???? The Do Loop is about following the rules with limited trial and error.

???? The Think Loop is about reframing the problem, and challenging assumptions and beliefs.

???? The Being Loop is about intentionally showing up differently.

An Experiment…

?? - What are you doing differently this week?

?? - How are you thinking differently this week?

?? - How are you showing up (being) differently this week?

An invitation to explore…

?? YouTube: ?How to use double loop learning ?[2 min 42 secs]

?? HBR Article:?Double Loop Learning in Organizations ?(Chris Argyris)

Leadership needn't be lonely!

Lead when ready!

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