Scientific Definition
Single-loop: fix the action. Double-loop: question the governing assumption behind it. Chris Argyris.
Plain-English Definition
Single-loop: fix the action. Double-loop: question the governing assumption behind it. Chris Argyris.
Feynman Explanation
Single-loop is 'try harder.' Double-loop is 'try different.'
Core Principle
Single-loop: fix the action. Double-loop: question the governing assumption behind it. Chris Argyris.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Single-loop: fix the action. Double-loop: question the governing assumption behind it. Chris Argyris.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Why incremental improvement plateaus without periodic premise checks.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Single-loop is 'try harder.' Double-loop is 'try different.'
Examples
- Organizations stuck optimizing a strategy whose premise has expired.
- Why incremental improvement plateaus without periodic premise checks.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Schedule explicit double-loop reviews on every major program.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Schedule explicit double-loop reviews on every major program.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Single-loop fixes the action. Double-loop questions the goal or model that produced it.
Three-stage cycle: learn by seeing, learn by doing, learn by teaching — looped continuously.
Single-loop fixes errors; double-loop questions the assumptions producing them.
Systems that gain from disorder.
Approach motivation — pursuit of rewards and goals.
Avoidance motivation — sensitivity to punishment, uncertainty, and threat.
Map reinforcing (R) and balancing (B) feedback loops between variables to see system behavior.
A system with many interacting parts that learn and adapt.
Many interacting parts producing emergent behavior nobody designed.
System 1 is fast, automatic, intuitive; System 2 is slow, effortful, deliberate.
Interdependent network of actors evolving together.
The whole has properties that the individual parts do not.