Teaching Smart People How to Learn

Competitive success depends on learning, but most people, including professionals in leadership positions, are not very good at it. Learning is a function of how people reason about their own behavior. Yet most people engage in defensive reasoning when confronted with problems. They blame others and avoid examining critically the way they have contributed to problems. This classic article by Chris Argyris shows how companies that focus on continuously improving their managers' and employees' reasoning patterns can improve employee problem-solving and therefore increase success.