Interactive graph
Learning Organizations
Table of Contents
Teams that change process after mistakes instead of burying them.
Key Concept
- “What broke” line stays until fixed or accepted.
- Level 1: Write down what went wrong and keep that note visible until the team fixes it or agrees to live with it.
- Level 2: The what broke line stays until fixed or accepted - like a sticky note on the fridge nobody removes until the leak is repaired.
- Level 3: Hidden failures repeat - a visible what broke line forces fix or explicit acceptance, because burying the miss guarantees the same miss returns.
- Level 4: Keep the what broke note on the board until the team fixes the system or documents why they accept the risk.
- Level 5: Incident Investigation feeds the line; Continuous Improvement closes it - not blame, system repair.
- Change the process after a miss - do not bury it and move on.
Examples
- After every tournament they kept one “what broke” line on the whiteboard until it was fixed or accepted.
- After every messy school morning we kept one “what broke” sticky on the fridge until the routine changed or we accepted the tradeoff.
Note Relationships
| Relationship | Wikilink | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| contradicts | By Their Fruits | when the opposite frame fits better |
| extends | Blameless After-Action Review | “What broke” line stays until fixed or accepted |
| extends | Continuous Improvement | Fix the process loop after every what-broke line |
| extends | Convert Pain Into Learning | Pain on the whiteboard becomes process change |
| extends | Measure Then Iterate | What broke line needs a metric or honest accept |
| implements | Transformation Principles | Organizational end state the transformation hub points toward |
