The most satisfying thing about being a student is having those perfect moments when theories, experiences and personal thoughts just seamlessly coincide to make sense of life in general.

I had a little moment like this today while reading Chris Argyris’ article Theories of action, double loop and organizational learning and considering the theories of espoused theory vs. theory-in-action.

I feel that throughout our experiences of education, work, and just trying to get by each day, many people tend to be Model I thinkers. But we’d do well to adopt a bit more of a Model II attitude. In fact, I think it’s increasingly necessary that we do.

To explain what I mean by this, let’s consider my attitudes towards being a student and the endless struggle to strike a balance between study, work, social life and health.

Hand me a survey and my “espoused theory” self would tell you I’ve completed the recommended 40 hours of uni/study, worked a reasonable 6 hour shift on the weekend, spent an enjoyable 8 hours hanging with my mates and a completed a healthy 3.5 hours of cardio this week. Winner!

Theory-in-action: I’ve spent 15 hours on uni/study, 31.5 hours working and interning, 15 hours hanging with my friends and the only cardio I do is sprinting to the train station each morning after sleeping through my alarm yet again.

Considering the dissonance between the espoused theory and theory-in-action of this situation generally just leads to massive waves of guilt. I find myself thinking crap, I should probably cut down my shifts and hit the books and not go out tonight and go for a goddamn run once in a while!

But it’s a good way to start considering things like practice and goals, and how accurate we’ve been in defining them.

Putting on my “Argyris” thinking cap, I can narrow down…

my practice/actions – working too many jobs, staying up too late, neglecting my health and denying the fact I’m back at school again

… which have consequences – feeling overworked, unhealthy, tired and behind in my homework

… that seemingly fail to achieve my intended outcome – of being a super-dedicated student who maintains a healthy lifestyle balance between work, friends and study! Ha.

So what now?

Well, there’s this idea of double-loop and single-loop learning. 

Staying with this case in point, at this point in my week I figure I have two options:

1)      rearrange my time in order to support my goals of being described the aforementioned “super-dedicated student” (single-loop), or

2) reassess how I really want to be spending my time and why (double-loop)

I feel that far too often people fall into the trap of being goal-focused, or at least I do. It goes back to how we are raised, educated, and most commonly expected to operate in a workplace. We have goals and we have expectations from ourselves and others to achieve them.

While single-loop learning requires us to rework the methods we use to achieve the goal, double-loop learning implores us to question the goal itself.

Maybe our method was right, and the unexpected outcome is what our goal should’ve been all along. Maybe the desired outcome was a misguided vision and thus the methods we used to achieve it were a waste of time.

Maybe I don’t really want to be a “super-dedicated student” after all and actually want to just become a 150kg workaholic with a closet drinking problem? No… I take that back. I do want to work hard.

But I need to refine what this means and why I want to do it. Then I can figure out how.

It’s a sort of lighthearted “case in point”, but it lends to bigger ideas.

As students, we tend to get caught up in measuring the experience of academic learning according to the governing values of Model I, but need to balance this with the values of Model II.

In fact, the concepts of Model I and II are integral to not just considering how we operate as students and why we study, but are integral to refining a practice that ensures our work remains relevant in the future.

In a professional working environment, there are fewer definitive measures and ‘right answers’ – two things we are overwhelmed with while we study.

But if you want to do good work that is relevant, valuable and fulfilling in the future, you have to get used to asking questions about what it is you’re working towards and why. Speculating about these things is the only way to stay ahead of the curb.

Ultimately, as media students/practitioners/“professionals-to-be,” relevance and how we achieve that are two of the most important things to consider, and Argyris’ concepts are a good framework for kickstarting that process.