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Double Loop Your Thinking |
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Free Feature Article |
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Many organizations go down a path of operational improvement and find that either their improvement is slow and incremental or that they run out of ideas. There may be several reason for this however a major reason is likely to be the ‘mental models’ that they bring to their business improvement efforts. To achieve significant and sustainable improvements in business the people designing and driving the effort need to employ double loop thinking.
Double loop thinking is a model for learning and organizational change that originates in the work of Argryis and Schon in 1974. The theory of double loop thinking can be summarized by explaining the difference between single loop and double loop thinking.
Single loop thinking has an emphasis on identifying differences between where you want to be and where you are today. This type of thinking helps us to solve problems in an incremental fashion using our current understanding of the world and the way things work.
Double loop thinking encourages us to challenge the basis of our assumptions about the world and the way things work (Argryis and Schon call this our ‘governing variables’). This means that instead of continually going through the same continuos improvement cycle and using our existing mental models to identify incremental improvements we need to challenge our thinking about what ‘should be’.
The work or Argryis and Schon focussed on change management and team learning. This approach has usually been used as a tool for identifying the improvement initiatives with the greatest likely impact. In this way, double loop thinking is used to help change the mindset in a business and leads to identifying fundamental changes rather than just quick fixes (although we generally don’t acknowledge the quick fixes as being just that!). Double loop thinking requires managers to challenge their beliefs, not only about what is possible but what is the best way to go about achieving the desired result. In fact, they may even challenge what they believe the end result should be.
This is all great in theory but how do we apply this is our businesses?
In the book A New Strategy For Continuous Improvement a process of operational improvement is provided that utilizes the principle of double loop thinking.
Before explaining that we need to review the classic approach to continuous improvement. Long before the development of the 10 Steps it was recognized that continuous improvement requires a cyclical approach. The ‘plan-do-check-act’ cycle in Figure 1 is a good example of this.
Figure 1: The Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle
This cycle has been a good tool over many years however it does have some limitations. Specifically these are:
Achieving sustainable cost reduction in a world of changing standards and management thinking that constantly evolves is best achieved through the use of a continuos improvement cycle that addresses each of these issues. In the book A New Strategy for Continuous Improvement the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle has evolved to be the Operations Improvement Cycle, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: The Operations Improvement Cycle
Double loop thinking is required in Stage 3: Renewal and Development. The changing nature of business drives the need for a process of renewal. Changes in areas such as market needs, technology development, product range, product mix and economic cycles may all result in your business requiring different needs over time. To account for these changes the Operations Improvement Cycle focuses on the changing environment and consideration of the impact of that change.
A common mistake in business improvement is to assume either that the existing foundation is appropriate for the business environment or that it cannot change. That is, the company is doing all the right things and cannot improve upon the basics. As a result companies can move too quickly into the second stage, Optimize Performance.
The move to Optimize Performance feels good because it requires action and taking action provides a sense of accomplishment. This action, however, may only reinforce existing problems and may not drive a long-term sustainable result. For example, if a company uses an inappropriate forecasting technique, no amount of optimization will drive sustainable improvement, a change in fundamentals is required first.
Too often, businesses remain in the Optimize Performance stage and fail to move onto Renewal and Development. In this case they may reach a ‘dead end’ in their thinking where little more can be achieved. At that point they tell themselves that they have done all that can be done and more or less give up on continuos improvement. This is where they need to apply double loop thinking and challenge the actual basis of what they are trying to achieve and the methods they are using to achieve that outcome.
The issue, therefore, should not be one of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ but rather one of ‘it ain’t broke, but is it still relevant?’ The Steps associated with Stage 3 Renewal and development are:
Step #8: Question Everything
If you partition your thinking with a ‘hands off’ approach to some parts of the business, then you will also limit the opportunity to improve the processes that interact with those parts of the business.
Step #9: Take Some Chances
By its very nature, progress requires the adoption of new actions and this will involve some risk. Innovation often requires a ‘leap of faith’. The key is to recognize, understand and manage the risk associated with taking chances.
Step#10: Ignore Tradition
It is now a cliché that change is the only constant. What worked well yesterday might not be the best option today. In fact, the processes that are refined and optimized in the first 9 steps of this program may, at some stage, become obsolete. If we accept that this is possible, then we must constantly be aware of the need to ignore our past constraints. Not because something is ‘broken’ but because markets, products, companies, circumstance and technology all change.
The message here is that the cycle must be worked through consciously and honestly. Short cuts may appear to provide progress but they rarely drive sustainable results. Double loop thinking is an approach that enables the identification of breakthrough actions that change not only what you manage but also how you manage it.
About The Author
Phillip Slater is the author of the book A New Strategy For Continuous Improvement. For more information visit his website at http://www.InitiateAction.com.
Note: You are welcome to reprint this article online on the condition that it remains complete and unaltered (including the ‘About the author’ info at the end) and you send a reprint to enquiries@InitiateAction.com |
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