posted 11-14-2001 11:11               

Double-Loop Knowledge Management
by Mark McElroy

With the advent of second-generation knowledge management (KM), the KM and organizational learning communities have begun to converge. Originally conceived as a way to codify and share information, KM focused on helping organizations create rules for performing tasks, such as fulfilling orders, so people don't have to continually reinvent how to do them. Second-generation KM expands upon such mechanical applications to include knowledge creation, that is, the ability to challenge, upgrade, and refresh rules when they no longer adequately meet new demands.

An organization has made the shift from "single-loop" to "double-loop" learning when it moves from simply performing to improving "how we do things." In this way, it increases its capacity to learn, innovate, and adapt to change. What does this shift look like on the job? Normally, rules tell workers what to do in defined situations, for example, if the customer wants A, then do X, Y, and Z. In double-loop learning, people not only reference these rules, they constructively challenge such rote responses; they construct alternative scenarios to play out likely outcomes, test promising new ideas, and replace old rules if new approaches produce more successful outcomes in practice.

In second-generation KM, the role of KM is to enhance an organization's capacity to learn and adapt by pursuing interventions that strengthen its learning and innovation processes. From this perspective, KM has more to do with "learning process management" than with the capture and codification of work products or rules.

This article appears in The Systems Thinker(r), Vol. 10, No. 8 (October 1999). For an updated version, click here.