Teaching Smart People How to Learn

Why are your smartest and most successful employees often the worst learners? Likely, they haven’t had the opportunities for introspection that failure affords. So when they do fail, instead of critically examining their own behavior, they cast blame outward-on anyone or anything they can. In Teaching Smart People How to Learn, Chris Argyris sheds light on the forces that prevent highly skilled employees for learning from mistakes and offers suggestions for helping talented employees develop more productive responses. Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading source of breakthrough ideas in management practice-many of which still speak to and influence us today. The HBR Classics series now offers you the opportunity to make these seminal pieces a part of your permanent management library. Each volume contains a groundbreaking idea that has shaped best practices and inspired countless managers around the world-and will change how you think about the business world today.

Chris Argyris is the James Conant Professor of Education and Organizational Behavior Emeritus at Harvard University. He has consulted to numerous private and governmental organizations. He has received many awards including thirteen honorary degrees and Lifetime’s Contributions Awards from the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, and American Society of Training Directors. His most recent books are, Flawed Advice and the Management Trap (OUP, 1999), and Reasons and Rationalizations (OUP, 2004). A chair professorship was established in 1994 at Yale University. He is a Director Emeritus of Monitor Group.