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Chris Argyris Quotes

Most people define learning too narrowly as mere 'problem-solving', so they focus on identifying and correcting errors in the external environment. Solving problems is important. But if learning is to persist, managers

Most people define learning too narrowly as mere 'problem-solving', so they focus on identifying and correcting errors in the external environment. Solving problems is important. But if learning is to persist, managers and employees must also look inward. The need to reflect critically on their own behaviour, identify the ways they often inadvertently contribute to the organisation’s problems, and then change how they act.

Chris Argyris
Errors, People, Focus
"Teaching Smart People How to Learn". hbr.org. June 1991.

Smart people don't learn... because they have too much invested in proving what they know and avoiding being seen as not knowing.

Chris Argyris
Smart, Teaching, Learning

In fact, people themselves are responsible for making the status quo so resistant to change. We are trapped by our own behavior.

Chris Argyris
People, Facts, Management
Chris Argyris (2010). “Organizational Traps: Leadership, Culture, Organizational Design”, p.10, OUP Oxford

Individual learning is a necessary but insufficient condition for organizational learning.

Chris Argyris
Individual, Organizational, Insufficient
Chris Argyris, Donald A. Schön (1978). “Organizational learning: a theory of action perspective”, Addison-Wesley

Managers who are skilled communicators may also be good at covering up real problems.

Chris Argyris
Real, Covering, May
"Skilled Incompetence" by Chris Argyris, hbr.org. September 1986.

Success in the marketplace increasingly depends on learning. Yet most people don't know how to learn.

Chris Argyris
Leadership, People, Marketplace
Chris Argyris (2008). “Teaching Smart People How to Learn”, p.1, Harvard Business Review Press

One must treat theory-in-use as both a psychological certainty and an intellectual hypothesis.

Chris Argyris
Intellectual, Use, Psychological
Chris Argyris, Donald A. Schön (1974). “Theory in practice: increasing professional effectiveness”, Jossey-Bass

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