book
Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method, and Practice
Argyris, Chris, and Donald A. Schon. Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method, and Practice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996.
Related concepts3 concepts
Concept
Contestability
Contestability names the condition where dispute can reopen without threatening shared coherence—where challenge does not mean collapse. It becomes important when legitimacy depends on more than coercion, when correction and revision matter for trust and adaptation. It helps preserve the capacity to learn from reality and adjust to changed conditions, but it thins when authority relocates legitimacy beyond ordinary revision—when sacred framing, canon, or procedure makes questioning feel dangerous. Contestability depends on whether revision feels survivable or indistinguishable from rupture. When small groups operate under mutual visibility, authority can be argued for even after it is obeyed. But under pressure—breakdown, threat, or instability—dissent begins to read as moral failure rather than political disagreement, and the range of acceptable interpretation narrows. Contestability thins while inherited certainty still coordinates; systems can run on compliance long after persuasion fades. It marks the moment just before certainty becomes difficult to question at all.
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Concept
Correction
Correction names the lived work of narrowing the gap between what was assumed and what is actually happening. It becomes important whenever systems, beliefs, or coordination can drift while still feeling operational. It helps preserve shared reality and learning, but can fail when every correction spawns new framing instead of updated contact with conditions. It differs from repair because correction updates belief and behavior; repair addresses damaged standing and trust. It differs from revisability because correction is the act; revisability is the designed capacity to keep correcting.
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Concept
Feedback
Feedback names how systems stay in contact with their own effects. It becomes important whenever action and consequence are separated by time, scale, or abstraction. It helps preserve learning, correction, and trust in ongoing coordination, but can fail when dashboards stay green while lived harm accumulates off the ledger. It differs from trust because feedback is the returning signal itself; trust is the bridge that lets people act before every signal arrives. It differs from correction because feedback is what returns; correction is the work of updating in response.
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Renewal and Erosion in Leadership
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When Others Look to You: Companion Edition
Forming, Renewing, Eroding, Repeating
How leadership influence forms, renews, erodes, and repeats across the full cycle of responsibility in practice.
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