Examine your assumptions, not just your actions

When reflection reveals a pattern of repeated mistakes, look for the underlying belief that generates them.

Why it works

Chris Argyris’s "double-loop learning" extends Kolb’s cycle: single-loop learning corrects actions within the current framework; double-loop learning questions the assumptions and "governing variables" that produced the faulty actions. Most experiential learning is single-loop — we adjust tactics while leaving the strategy intact. Double-loop requires asking "why does this pattern keep recurring?" rather than "what should I do differently this time?"

How to do it

1. When you notice the same mistake appearing across multiple cycles, resist the impulse to refine the tactic.
2. Ask: "What assumption am I making that keeps generating this outcome?"
3. Surface the assumption explicitly, then ask what would need to be true for it to be wrong.

Evidence

Argyris and Schön’s double-loop learning is well established in organizational learning literature and is consistent with research on belief revision and on the difficulty of updating strongly held assumptions through normal feedback cycles. (mechanistic)

Double-loop learning is a theoretical framework; while it has substantial practitioner and case-study support, controlled experimental research is limited.

Sources

• Argyris & Schön (1978), "Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective"

Common mistake

Treating recurrent mistakes as needing better execution of the same strategy, rather than as signals that the underlying model needs to change.