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Teaching Smart People How To Learn: Harvard Business Review ON Managing People

The document discusses how companies can teach smart employees how to learn. It argues that while success depends on learning, most people don't know how to learn. It notes that human behavior patterns can block organizational learning. It also explains that well-educated professionals are prone to defensive behaviors that prevent learning, such as only focusing on external factors for problems rather than internal reflection. The document advocates for double loop learning over single loop learning and discusses how to help professionals overcome defensive reasoning and focus on productive reasoning that can enable organizational improvement.

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Millan Mathore
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76 views22 pages

Teaching Smart People How To Learn: Harvard Business Review ON Managing People

The document discusses how companies can teach smart employees how to learn. It argues that while success depends on learning, most people don't know how to learn. It notes that human behavior patterns can block organizational learning. It also explains that well-educated professionals are prone to defensive behaviors that prevent learning, such as only focusing on external factors for problems rather than internal reflection. The document advocates for double loop learning over single loop learning and discusses how to help professionals overcome defensive reasoning and focus on productive reasoning that can enable organizational improvement.

Uploaded by

Millan Mathore
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

ON
MANAGING PEOPLE

TEACHING SMART PEOPLE


HOW TO LEARN
by Chris Argyris
TEACHING SMART PEOPLE HOW TO
LEARN

“Success in the market place


increasingly depends on learning,
yet most people don’t know how
to learn”
TEACHING SMART PEOPLE HOW TO
LEARN
• Success mainly depends upon learning
• Employees should reflect critically on their own
behaviors.
• Human behavior patterns block learning in an
organization
• Why well-educated professionals are prone to
these patterns
TEACHING SMART PEOPLE HOW TO
LEARN
Learning Dilemma:
• Companies have difficulty addressing this issue
• Some companies are not aware this issue exists.
• How companies can improve the ability of their
managers and employees to learn.
MISUNDERSTANDING LEARNING

Two mistakes made in the effort of becoming a learning


organization:
1. People define learning too narrowly as mere “Problem
Solving”
2. The common assumption that getting people to learn is
largely a matter of motivation
TYPES OF LEARNING

Single Loop Learning Double Loop Learning

A thermostat that A thermostat that could


automatically turns on the ask: “Why am I set at
heat whenever the 68°?” and then explores
temperature in a room whether or not some other
drop below 68° temperature might more
economically achieve the
goal of heating the room.
TEACHING SMART PEOPLE HOW TO
LEARN

• Breaks down the defenses that block


learning
• Mastery of some highly specialized
technical expertise
• Work effectively in teams
HOW PROFESSIONALS AVOID LEARNING
HOW PROFESSIONALS AVOID
LEARNING

• Highly satisfied with the jobs


• Teach people how to do things differently
• Professionals embodied learning dilemma
HOW PROFESSIONALS AVOID LEARNING

• Learning and change focused on external


organizational factors.
• Creating new systems and structures
• Continuous improvement of the
professionals
DEFENSIVE REASONING AND THE DOOM
LOOP

• Performance Evaluation process was


unfair.
• Performance evaluations are tailor-made to
push professionals into the doom loop
• Professionals interest will decrease
DEFENSIVE REASONING AND THE
DOOM LOOP
• Professionals believed in continuous improvement,
and yet they consistently acted in ways that made
improvement impossible.
• Encourages individuals to keep private the premises,
inferences, and conclusions that shape their behavior
and to avoid testing them in a truly independent,
objective fashion.
DEFENSIVE REASONING AND THE DOOM
LOOP

• Work performance in presence of the boss.


• Managers are unable to find mistakes and
weaknesses in their own performance.
• Open communication
WHY MANAGERS RESPOND
DEFENSIVELY?

• Professionals respond defensively because they have


developed a theory of action
• Rarely face failure
• Prefers to be an individual contributor
• Doom Zoom and doom loop.
• Professionals have brittle personalities
• Try to cover up their distress in front of the clients.
BEHAVIOR THEORY

• Espoused Theory: How people think they behave

• Theory-in-use: How people actually behave


THEORY-IN-USE

• 4 basic Values of theory-in-use:


• To remain in control
• To maximize winning and minimize losing
• Suppress negative feelings.
• To be as rational as possible

The purpose of all these values is to avoid


embarrassment or threat, feeling vulnerable or
incompetent
LEARNING HOW TO REASON
PRODUCTIVELY

• Managers must become aware of their


defensive reasoning and its results,
otherwise any change will just be a
fad(method/approach) without any reason)
• Change must start at the top
• Connect the program to real business
problems
LEARNING HOW TO REASON
PRODUCTIVELY

• Blame others
• Apply the same kind of “tough reasoning”
used in conducting strategic analysis
CONCLUSION
• Professionals should be good at double
looping
• Companies must learn how to overcome
the learning dilemma
• Effective learning is the product of the
way people reason about their own
behavior
CONCLUSION

• Matter of motivation
• Professionals must learn the ability to
learn from their failure.
• Open communication policy should be
organizationally implemented
CONCLUSION
• Employees must evaluate their own
performance before blaming the factors around
them.
• Companies need to make the ways managers
and employees reason about their behavior a
key focus of organizational learning and
continuous improvement programs.
THANK-YOU..!!

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