Impact Trust • Working glossary

Learning loops

Cycles of action, reflection, and adaptation where insights feed back into improved practice.

Details

Our Take
Well-established in organisational learning theory. Single-loop: fixing errors. Double-loop: questioning assumptions. Triple-loop: transforming worldview. Most organisations are good at single-loop and poor at double-loop and almost never reach triple-loop. The culture of anticipation is a triple-loop challenge. The insight about building 'infrastructure for learning loops' rather than hub-and-spoke knowledge systems is the operational point.
Examples of Use
Organisational learning
Synonyms/Variants
Action-reflection cycles; Iterative learning; Argyris and Schon's learning levels
Typical everyday wording
Learning from what happened, then questioning why we thought it would work.