Double-Loop Learning Keeps Wardley Maps Honest
In our last post, we explored the cybernetic fate of organisations and the difficult choices they face when dealing with complexity. We saw how important it is to match the complexity of the environment with the complexity of the organisation's response. But how can we be sure that our understanding of the environment is accurate and that our responses are the right ones?
Wardley Maps can fool experienced teams into mistaking the map for the territory. When the landscape is drawn clearly, leaders can get caught up in making small tweaks instead of questioning the entire frame. This is where Double-loop learning—a concept from Chris Argyris and Donald Schön about questioning our underlying assumptions—brings back a dose of humility. It forces you to ask not only, "Did we place the components correctly?" but also, "Are we even mapping the right thing?"