Question the assumptions underlying repeated failures rather
Question the assumptions underlying repeated failures rather than just correcting actions within those assumptions.
Why This Is a Principle
This principle follows from Double-loop learning requires questioning the framework (double-loop learning requires questioning frameworks), Piagetian Equilibration Through Schema Dynamics (equilibration requires accommodation when assimilation fails), and Single-loop learning adjusts actions within existing (single-loop adjusts within assumptions). It prescribes schema-level revision over action-level adjustment when problems recur.
Source Lessons
Organizational learning
An organization that cannot update its schemas in response to feedback is dying — it is operating from an increasingly inaccurate model of reality. Organizational learning is the process through which the organization revises its shared mental models based on experience. Single-loop learning adjusts actions within existing schemas. Double-loop learning revises the schemas themselves. Only double-loop learning produces genuine organizational adaptation.
Continuous organizational learning
Organizations that learn faster than their environment changes survive and thrive. Organizational learning is not the sum of individual learning — it is a systemic capability that converts experience into improved organizational behavior. An organization learns when its systems, processes, and practices change in response to experience — not just when its individuals acquire new knowledge. The learning organization does not just accumulate knowledge (L-1691) — it converts knowledge into capability: the ability to do things differently and better based on what has been learned.