Teaching Smart People How to Learn By: Chris Argyris

1. Teaching Smart People How to Learn By: Chris Argyris Team 2: Lauren Loveless Van Tran Leanne Mulholland Trang Vu Khanh Nguyen

2. PresentationOutline Background on Author Introduction Article Main Points: How Professionals Avoid Learning Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop Learning How to Reason Productively Article Critique Discussion Questions

3. Background on the Author: Chris Argyris • Born on July 16, 1923 in Newark, New Jersey • Graduated from Clark and Kansas University before completing his Ph.D. at Cornell in the early 1950s • American Business Theorist & Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School • Known for influential work in the area of "Learning Organizations“

4. Background on the Author: Chris Argyris • Worked with Robert W. Putnam and Diana McLain Smith • Studied an approach that focuses on generating knowledge that is useful in solving practical problems • Theorist and practitioner of organizational development • Wrote, taught and acted as a consultant in helping people and organizations to learn (50 years) • Published over thirty books and a large number of articles

5. A word from Chris: “I began my career with a dedication to reducing injustices. The injustices that intrigued me were those that inhibited the expansion of liberating alternatives. Soon I narrowed my focus even further to those injustices created by human beings when they were acting to reduce the injustices. The more that I studied these phenomena, the more I found myself studying processes that were self-sealing, compulsively repetitive, and non-interruptible and changeable by the very people who created them” (Argyris 2003, p. 1178).

6. Key Concepts Developed by Argyris: • Ladder of Inference • Double-Loop Learning • Theory of Action/Espoused Theory/Theory-in-use • High Advocacy/High Inquiry dialogue • Actionable Knowledge • Studied impact of formal organizational structures, control systems and management on individuals and how they responded and adapted to them

7. Popular Publications By Argyris • Personality and Organization (1957) • Interpersonal Competence and Organizational Effectiveness (1962) • Integrating the Individual and the Organization (1964) • Organization and Innovation (1965) • Inner Contradictions of Rigorous Research (1980) • Action Science (1985) - Robert Putnam and Diana McLain Smith • Overcoming Organizational Defenses (1990) • Knowledge for Action (1993)

8. Introduction The 1990s organization depends on learning Every company faces a dilemma- Most people do not know how to learn Companies are not even aware the dilemma exist Obstacles to becoming a “learning organization” Thinking learning is just problem solving Single Loop Learning Double Loop Learning Using learning as a matter of motivation

9. How Professionals Avoid Learning

10. How Professionals Avoid Learning Why these professionals?? • Epitome of highly educated professional who play a central role in all organizations • Have MBAs from top 3 or 4 US Business schools • Highly committed to their work • Good at learning

11. How Professionals Avoid Learning The Learning Dilemma : “Professionals embody the learning dilemma: They are enthusiastic about continuous improvement – and often the biggest obstacle to its success.”

13. Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop

14. Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop The Difference between “Theory-in-Use” and “Espouse” Theory: • “Espouse” Theory: Theories of actions that people expect themselves to behave or act • “Theory-in-Use:” The way they actually act

15. Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop

16. Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop “Universal Human Tendency” contains four basic values: • To remain in unilateral control • To maximize “winning” and minimize “losing” • To suppress negative feelings • To be as “rational” as possible

17. Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop • Defensive Reasoning: Encourages individuals to keep private their premises, inferences, and conclusions that shape their behavior and to avoid testing them in a truly independent, objective fashion • “Doom-Loop” Professionals fear failure and prefer to be called “productive loner” which means “Individual contributor” instead of a member of a productive team

18. Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop • Brittleness or “brittle” personality : when they are suddenly faced with a situation they cannot immediately handle, they tend to fall apart. It causes a high level of despondency or despair • Despondency: combined with defensive reasoning, it can result in a formidable predisposition against learning.

19. Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop • Performance Evaluation: The moment when a professional must measure his or her own behavior against some formal standard, a performance evaluation. It is almost tailor-made to push a professional into the doom loop

20. Learn How To Reason Productively

21. Learn How to Reason Productively People were locked in defensive reasoning, and blame others • It is important to focus on an individual’s attitude or commitment. Creating new organizational structures or systems is not always enough to produce real change.

22. Learn How to Reason Productively People genuinely strive to produce what they intend, their self-esteem is intimately tied up with behaving consistently • Teaches individuals how to reason in a new way to change the master programs in their heads and reshape their behavior

23. Learn How to Reason Productively How can an organization begin to teach its members how to reason productively? • Top-managers need to first examine critically and change their own theories-in-use • They can have a big impact on the performance of the entire organization

24. Learn How to Reason Productively How can an organization begin to teach its members how to reason productively? • By connecting the program to real business problems • To see how it can make a direct difference in their own performance and in that of the organization • They grasp the powerful impact that productive reasoning can have on actual performance • They will have a strong incentive to reason productively not just in a training session but in all their work relationships

25. Article Critique • Overall the author’s theory was supported • The author emphasizes the groundwork for continuous improvement is learning, which is the key to a successful organization • His approach emphasizes a new way of learning in an organization. • The different organizational models discussed are extreme sides to organizational structure. Proposing one model for every organization would be too generic. Each organization should use the best model that suits them (possibly combine the two different models).

26. What is Defensive Reasoning? How can it be overcome to provide more productive reasoning? • Almost always succeed in what has been done • Rarely experience failure • Never learn how to learn from failure When single loop learning strategies go wrong, smart people : • Become defensive • Screen out criticism • Put blame on anyone and everyone but themselves  Defensive reasoning, which shuts down their ability to learn precisely at the moment they need it the most

27. How to provide more productive reasoning • Managers at the top should examine critically and change their own theories -in-use • Then, create any transformation in reasoning patterns going through any levels in an organization • Connect the learning program to teach senior managers to real business problems, such as a kind of rudimentary case study • Take time and efforts to change defensive reasoning behavior of smart people  Learning to reason productively can be emotional-even painful, but the payoff is great: Management teams and entire organizations work more openly and more effectively and have greater options for behaving flexibly and adapting to particular situations

28. What is ‘Double Loop Learning’ and why do professionals suppress it? As high skilled professionals spent much of their lives acquiring academic credentials, mastering one or a number of intellectual disciplines, and applying those disciplines to solve real-world problems, they are frequently good at single loop learning and so bad at double-loop learning

29. “Teaching Smart People How to Learn is a difficult undertaking.” Why? • Define learning too narrowly as mere “problem solving”  focus on identifying and correcting errors in the external environment • Unaware of their learning dilemma must retrain the brain • Doom loop  fear of failure • Defensive reasoning  blocks learning  Biggest obstacles to organizational learning and continuous improvement

30. Questions??