seething about the fact that i will never experience photosynthesis in my own useless cells. i bet it feels so good when the light of the sun both warms you and fuels you at the same time. a bone-deep satisfaction mixed with a heated sugar-rush and endless brightness. not that i would fucking know
Engaging Learners: The Power of Double-Loop Learning
Making learners active participants in their own learning is every training professional’s dream. A passive recipient of knowledge often fails to apply what they’ve learned effectively, whereas an engaged, inquisitive workforce continuously thinks, questions, and innovates. Achieving this level of engagement requires more than just effective teaching techniques; it involves a fundamental shift in how learning is approached. This is where Chris Argyris and Donald Schön’s theory of ‘double-loop’ learning becomes invaluable.
In this article, we’ll explore the concepts of ‘single-loop’ and ‘double-loop’ learning, highlight the differences between them, and demonstrate how ‘double-loop’ learning can transform a company into a vibrant learning organization.
Understanding Single-Loop and Double-Loop Learning
To grasp the significance of double-loop learning, it’s essential first to understand single-loop learning.
Single-Loop Learning refers to the process where individuals, groups, or organizations modify their actions based on feedback received, without altering the underlying beliefs or policies. This type of learning is akin to a thermostat that changes temperature settings in response to the environment but doesn’t question why it’s set to a particular range. For example, an employee might follow a certain protocol more closely after receiving feedback that they were not compliant, but they don’t question whether the protocol itself could be improved.
Double-Loop Learning, on the other hand, goes deeper. It involves questioning and potentially altering the underlying assumptions, values, and policies that led to the actions in the first place. It’s about understanding the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’. Instead of merely adjusting actions to meet a desired outcome, double-loop learning challenges the governing variables and redefines the problem itself. In our thermostat analogy, this would mean not just changing the temperature setting, but questioning whether the temperature range is appropriate at all.
The Distinction Between Single-Loop and Double-Loop Learning
The primary difference between single-loop and double-loop learning lies in their scope and depth of inquiry.
Nature of Inquiry:
Single-Loop Learning: Reactive and corrective, focusing on immediate issues and making incremental changes.
Double-Loop Learning: Proactive and reflective, addressing the root causes and potentially redefining the problem.
Focus:
Single-Loop Learning: Concentrates on tasks, skills, and immediate performance improvements.
Double-Loop Learning: Emphasizes broader organizational values, strategies, and fundamental principles.
Outcome:
Single-Loop Learning: Maintains the status quo by fine-tuning existing processes.
Double-Loop Learning: Facilitates transformational change by re-evaluating and potentially overhauling processes.
Building a Vibrant Learning Organization with Double-Loop Learning
Creating an environment where double-loop learning flourishes involves fostering a culture of continuous reflection and open dialogue. Here’s how organizations can achieve this:
Encourage Critical Thinking and Inquiry:Promote a culture where employees are encouraged to ask ‘why’ and challenge existing assumptions. This can be achieved through training programs that focus on critical thinking skills and creating safe spaces for questioning.
Facilitate Open Communication:Establish channels for open communication where feedback flows freely in all directions. Leaders should model transparency and receptivity to feedback, showing that questioning is valued over mere compliance.
Promote Reflective Practice:Implement practices that encourage reflection on both successes and failures. Regular debriefings, post-mortem analyses of projects, and reflective journaling can help employees internalize double-loop learning.
Supportive Leadership:Leaders play a crucial role in fostering double-loop learning. They must be willing to question their own assumptions and support their teams in doing the same. Leadership development programs can help inculcate these values.
Systems Thinking:Encourage systems thinking, which involves understanding how different parts of the organization interact and influence each other. This holistic approach can help in identifying the underlying causes of issues and in developing comprehensive solutions.
Incorporate Learning into Daily Work:Integrate learning into the daily workflow rather than treating it as a separate activity. This can involve setting aside time for reflection during meetings, encouraging ongoing education, and recognizing learning as a part of job performance.
Case Study: Implementing Double-Loop Learning
Consider a mid-sized tech company facing declining customer satisfaction. Through single-loop learning, the company’s response was to improve customer service training and reduce response times. However, these efforts didn’t lead to significant improvement.
Adopting a double-loop learning approach, the company decided to re-examine their assumptions about customer satisfaction. They discovered that the core issue was not the service itself but unmet customer expectations due to a mismatch between marketing promises and product features. By addressing this fundamental issue, redefining their marketing strategies, and aligning them with product capabilities, they not only improved customer satisfaction but also enhanced overall brand trust.
The Impact of Double-Loop Learning on Organizational Performance
The benefits of double-loop learning extend beyond individual or team performance, influencing the entire organization’s adaptive capacity and resilience.
Enhanced Innovation: By constantly questioning and redefining problems, organizations can uncover innovative solutions that single-loop learning might overlook. This leads to a more dynamic and creative work environment.
Greater Agility:Organizations practicing double-loop learning are better equipped to adapt to changing environments. They are not bound by rigid procedures but are flexible in revising strategies based on reflective insights.
Improved Decision Making:Decision-making processes become more robust as they incorporate deeper insights and a broader range of perspectives. This holistic view reduces the risk of oversights and enhances strategic planning.
Employee Empowerment:When employees are encouraged to think critically and challenge assumptions, they feel more valued and empowered. This leads to higher engagement, job satisfaction, and retention.
Organizational Learning Culture:A culture of double-loop learning fosters ongoing learning and development. It promotes an environment where continuous improvement is the norm, and learning is embedded in the organizational DNA.
Conclusion
Double-loop learning offers a powerful framework for transforming how organizations approach learning and problem-solving. By moving beyond surface-level corrections and delving into the underlying assumptions and values, organizations can foster a culture of deep learning and continuous improvement. This shift not only enhances individual and team performance but also drives organizational innovation, agility, and resilience.
As training professionals and organizational leaders, the challenge is to create environments that support and nurture double-loop learning. This involves encouraging critical thinking, promoting open communication, and integrating reflective practices into daily workflows. By doing so, organizations can achieve the dream of having an engaged, inquisitive, and proactive workforce—one that is not just a passive recipient of knowledge but an active participant in its own learning journey.
i killed. i murdered. i'm nothing like these sleepy people here… nevertheless, you can actually be grateful? bastard…
i’m saying… thank you. because you spilled blood, you saved all of these people’s lives. i couldn’t have done it without you. (ID in alt)
Danny would like everyone to know it was a complete accident. Look, normally he was really good at not altering the timeline! He was!
But the dude was definitely not in the right Time, and he had to get his trust which took so long, like damn he thought he had anxiety. Seriously though, kevlar in the 1700s? Yeah that wasn’t right, and Peepaw always complained about the messes that the speedsters caused, so he was trying to prevent a mess by tugging the dude away and helping him out.
Falling in love maybe a little, was not in the plan. But honestly the man had a worse sense of self preservation than he did as a teen and was also straight up adorable, in a wet cat who could kill you sort of way.
So maybe he helped the dude grab a child that was going to be drowned. It wasn’t like anyone else saw them! Even if similar situations might’ve happened a few different times.
Still, no one saw them!
So why is there now a small cult who worships the Shadowed one and Radiant one, aka his companion (who would not give his name save for B, which, fair, probably didn’t want to accidentally wreck the timeline either) and well, him?! At least they worship them as guardians of children, but uh. Should he maybe, perhaps, fix this…?
Happy Last Scarland day! Here's my Rolling Down Mainstreet and Hotel Architecture work for @scarland-artbook🎈🎈
process vid:
The entire scene uncropped:
Hotel Drafts:
For the hotel, I thought about the hallways and the general opulence and ambiance when you walk in (chandeliers, check-in counter, tiling on the floors). I mapped out all of the rooms (e.g. the outdoor patio, the lounge, the café/deli, & Scott and Fwhip's decorated rooms).
A few inspirations I took were the following:
Sun & Thirteen Cantons in Soho
Great Central Pub at The Landmark London
Prince of Wales Hotel at Niagara-on-the-Lake
I also wanted to consider an elevator for access... And if I had more ideas outside of the hotel layoutway honestly I'd keep designing with laundry chutes and more hallways and a pool. I love hotels
forever annoyed by the wannabe activism that got so much worse during the pandemic that so many younger people seem to primarily abide by now. where almost all their "action" is online-based and heavily focused on media consumption and "problematic people". it drives me so crazy. i don't know how to tell you that going after a musician or actor or comedian because of their views or statements is the least productive form of activism and i honestly wouldn't even count it as such. if you want to call yourself an activist you actually need to ACT. not just talk online about how person xyz is evil and be done for the day, or say book/movie xyz is problematic and then log off, that's not enough, that doesn't actually DO anything
call local officials, go to protests, talk to people at your uni/school, boycott brands. hell, even talk to your parents about what's going on in Palestine, or other current events, many older people have conservative views, not because of inherent bigotry, but because they don't have enough information and grew up in a media propaganda bubble. or just talk about ongoing events online, keep the pressure on the public and don't let people lean back and forget. all that are actual forms of activism
i'll never stop being mad at the new wave social media wannabe activism that lets people think they're done with their Activism Activity of the day if they called timothee chalamet or noah schnapp a bad person. girl, yeah they are, but actually do Anything else too, that's not the activism you apparently think it is😭
I am Tetsuya Sogo, a 1982 undergraduate (Ozeki lab), and have been entrusted by Professor Ohno to write an essay for the senior section of Waseda Mail Magazine. After graduating from Waseda university, I joined NTN Corporation, headquartered in Osaka, a manufacturer involved in producing and selling bearings and components for automobiles and industrial machinery, where I started to work as an engineer in the manufacturing department. From 2011, I held positions as an executive officer, primarily overseeing NTN Americas region. After working as CFO for three years since 2020, focusing on NTN's business revitalization, I have just retired in 2023 in accordance with the executive retirement age guideline of 63 years old. In this opportunity, I would like to describe what I, as an alumnus who worked for the same Japanese manufacturer for 41 years, have learned and how I have thought about corporate management in the trend of globalization.
At the age of 29, I participated as a member of the launch team for a new factory producing HUB bearings for automobiles in the outskirts of Chicago, USA, serving as a chief engineer. From 1989 to 1996, for a period of 7 and a half years, I experienced my first overseas assignment. While introducing state-of-the-art production facilities and technology from Japan at that time, we struggled with significantly lower productivity compared to the Japanese mother factory. We faced challenges such as low employee skills, high absenteeism, and high turnover rates. In an effort to bring about transformation, I repeatedly experimented with various approaches, reflecting on what constituted the core management issue and what needed to change. Ultimately, I learned that a “highly just evaluation and treatment that resonates with local talent to maximize their motivation” is essential. In other words, “people's behavior changes significantly based on how they are evaluated and treated.” I revamped the vague personnel evaluation, pay and treatment system of that time, objectively and fairly evaluating skills and performance in a way that everyone could agree upon, and clearly linking it to compensation. This led to improved employee motivation, and within a year, the entire factory, which had been in the red, astonishingly turned profitable. This experience made me realize the importance of designing systems that enhance employees' willingness to learn and motivation to improve, more than just providing technical guidance as an engineer. It became the cornerstone of my recognition of the significance of “Learning Organizations”, a concept advocated by Professor Peter Senge of MIT at that time.
In the process of introducing this new employment system, I explained the company's perspective and policies, aligned with our corporate values and vision, through direct dialogue with all employees. I believe that such dialogue was the key to the success that followed. I learned that even if my English was not good, I was able to convey what I wanted to say with passion from my whole body, that I needed English that would move people’s hearts rather than simply fluent English, and that fluent English was meaningless without an open mind and passion for change. Factory workers are especially diverse. Even though they are Americans, not all of them are born and educated in the United States. People from all over the world—Mexico, China, India, Russia, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and so forth—were working together. Therefore, basically, “a-un no kokyu” (communicating and agreeing with each other without exchanging words) does not work as it does in Japan. In Japan, from the time children are in elementary school, their teachers keep telling them to “think from the other person's point of view, and imagine how you would feel if you were in the other person's position”, but this method would not be effective if we were born and raised in a different environment or with a different way of thinking. It is rather dangerous to think that because you feel this way, the other person will feel the same way. Especially for Japanese managers, it was necessary to pay attention to the issue of age discrimination and affirmative action.
At that time, I wanted to learn American management practices while undergoing various trials and errors in the manufacturing field in the United States. From 1994 to 1996, I worked while studying for an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University on weekends. As an engineer, subjects like strategic theory, finance, and marketing provided a fresh and eye-opening experience for me. The admission interview took place in a dedicated Executive MBA building resembling a top-class hotel. I was courteously guided to an office labeled “Assistant Dean”, where I was welcomed by a lady named Ms. Erica Kantor. Initially, I thought she might be a secretary, but she turned out to be the Assistant Dean. Instead of facing a panel of interviewers and expecting challenging questions, I was offered coffee or tea in a luxurious reception room and told, “I will listen to your story for the next hour.” This unexpected one-on-one interview began as I sipped coffee. This interview was completely different from what I had anticipated, and though I had never experienced such an interview before, in hindsight, I believe that providing you with a certain amount of time to freely express yourself, including how you convey your thoughts, allows various aspects of your personality to emerge. Erica mainly took notes of what I said without asking many questions. However, the idea of conveying one's own thoughts and passion within a limited time frame, such as an hour or even just 90 seconds, to ensure effective communication with the recipient, turned out to be an essential skill for working globally, as I repeatedly experienced during my work at NTN afterwards. Tailoring my way of thinking and approach to the level of my counterpart, making them understand and genuinely agree, and presenting it as a compelling story, are crucial skills for a management professional. Finally, Erica told me, “Officially, the final decision is made by the faculty after document review, but you will most likely pass.” Erica, a slightly older than I and elegant tall woman, gave me these words of encouragement. I named my first daughter, who was born just before I entered the Executive MBA program, “Erica” after her. My first daughter is now a working adult, so my interview with Erica was a long time ago, but it still left a strong impression on me.
After graduating from the Kellogg School of Management, I returned to Japan in 1996. For the 15 years leading up to my second trip to the United States in 2011, I worked in the headquarters' management strategy department, focusing on developing medium-term management plans. During this time, I concentrated particularly on global alliances, cross-border M&A, and engaged in negotiations that involved various forms of intellectual sparring, tactics, and probing for genuine intentions, experiencing negotiations from behind the scenes and oblique perspectives. However, I came to realize that ultimately, the success of alliances hinges on the mutual understanding and trust established with negotiation partners. In the context of medium-term management planning, I learned that it's crucial not only to have competitive strategies and theoretical frameworks, but also to ensure that every department and region is motivated with a sense of conviction. To achieve results, I understood the importance of facilitation. Neglecting this aspect could lead to the headquarters, often perceived by business divisions as merely a department of empty words, being unable to effectively harness both global centripetal and centrifugal forces.
In my second assignment to the United States for seven years from 2011 to 2018 as CEO of NTN Americas Region, I had to make decisions on a daily basis in a cross-cultural environment, especially in the entire Americas region that included South America, where no one knew the correct answer to management questions. I felt that it was very important to have the ability to sense the situation and atmosphere of an organization, which was difficult to express in words, through various interactions. All of the issues that I faced on a daily basis in the field were not something that could be analyzed logically like a computer that finds the correct answer. Rather, I needed to quickly make a better overall decision on the spot, and to do so, I had to polish my ability and sense to accurately perceive fundamental issues, and face-to-face communication was essential in doing so. In the MBA program, subjects such as strategy, marketing, and finance, were very popular, and there were many famous professors, so I put a lot of energy into studying them. On the other hand, subjects such as organizational theory and HR, were not so popular at that time. However, I feel that organizational theory and HR are becoming more and more important as I get older. During my assignment to the United States back when I was young, I challenged myself to make various changes to motivate the employees at a manufacturing company. In my second assignment to the United States, on the other hand, localization of upper management was a major issue to strengthen the organization in the Americas, including South America. So I had to entrust business expansion to the people who knew the markets of each country the best. For the Japanese people on overseas assignment, it is necessary to clarify why things cannot be conducted locally. It is easy and comfortable for Japanese people to communicate with each other, while localization is very tiring due to the language problem among other difficulties, but I repeatedly promoted town hall meetings with employees at all locations, leadership training for middle management, and executive development programs through collaboration with Kellogg School of Management, recognizing that without doing these, there would be no future. My belief that globalization is based on “motivating local talented people to fully demonstrate their abilities” has not changed at all since my first assignment to the United States. I want to realize a global learning organization that can operate effectively cross-functionally based on the close exchange of information between people across departments, a close-knit organization that does not generate any blind spots, by focusing on a middle-up-down management style that is indispensable to resolve the contradictions between ideal and reality in each working area.
Upon returning from the United States, I witnessed a critical consolidated financial situation caused by the lack of strategic management direction from the headquarters at the time, as well as the poor leadership and management of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) functions. Particularly in Japan, along with significant impairment charges, urgent actions were needed as CFO to formulate and drive a group-wide corporate value revitalization scenario, supported by necessary funding. I focused on three main aspects in the comprehensive transformation of NTN: (1) Enhancing “Pricing Power” by moving away from the approach of satisfying all customers (product/business portfolio reform), (2) Shortening the “Cash Conversion Cycle” by departing from excessive inventory (production/logistics reform), and (3) Strengthening “Strategic Partnerships” by moving away from an in-house focused technical accumulation (procurement reform). The essence of this “Revitalization Scenario” required each region's thorough understanding and autonomous execution, adapting rapidly to changes in their respective business environments, necessitating essential communication and coordination between the headquarters and regions. As a common language, the introduction and deployment of Corporate Finance perspectives, including criteria for investment assessment and business valuation through the concept of capital cost, were initiated. On the other hand, we improved collaboration and integration among the disjointed key central divisions, finance headquarters, management strategy department, and each business planning department. The aim of such activities was to enhance the FP&A function of the entire CFO organization globally. In order to enforce group-wide CFO policies, I positioned the communication, while sending my regular CFO messages, with internal and external stakeholders, such as regional executives, stock and financial markets, as crucial for the company's value revitalization. Under tough business situations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, semiconductor shortages, Ukrainian tensions, and rising raw material costs, I directed efforts towards accelerating the financial and stock price recovery. Over the course of three years as CFO, I came to recognize the importance and challenges of gaining the full understanding and commitment of the entire group, particularly the middle management level, regarding the significance of the tough business conditions, the need for transformation as a solution, and their contribution of effort towards driving the changes.
The attached photo is from my first visit this summer to the “Sogo castle ruins” in Kagawa prefecture, which my father used to talk about before his passing. During this visit, I paid respects at the graves of the samurai lords “Kazumasa Sogo” and “Masayasu Sogo” from the Sengoku period. I believe that the spirit of “Bushido” holds significant importance for today's leaders in Japan. Business executives must constantly introspect, ensuring they have nothing to be ashamed of, reviewing whether their actions and words might evoke customer discontent or cause embarrassment to their employees. This introspection forms the foundation of “Business Ethics” and “Corporate Social Responsibility”, and I firmly believe that it paves the way for the long-term growth and development of Japanese companies. Kazumasa Sogo, who was feared as “Demon Sogo”, prioritized the creation of a country where everyone could laugh together in peace over advancing his own position or expanding his territory. I heard from the chairman of Sogo family association that Kazumasa Sogo is still respected and loved in this local area, and this story reminded me of the importance of pursuing true “ESG management” and “human capital management” in corporate management, without merely following superficial trends of the world, or becoming a good boss who only shows pretended kindness. Listening to various anecdotes of great ancestors, I felt both ashamed of my own shortcomings and motivated by their admonishments.