Thunderstruck: triple loop learning on the sharp end

CRACK! The first lightning bolt felt right overhead. No rumbles of advanced warning. Straight overhead. I. am. Going. To. Die.

In the heart of the Californian Sierras, a thunderstorm disrupted a climbing adventure, revealing profound parallels between the art of scaling mountains and the principles of business agility. This short tale of thunder, rock climbing, and triple loop learning serves as a captivating metaphor for the importance of adaptability, critical reflection, and strategic evolution in the business world.

Last week, I flew over to Los Angeles to join a friend climbing in the Californian Sierras. Even getting onto the plane had been uncertain. In my over-eager, too-late training efforts, I had badly pulled a muscle in my leg and had spent June and July barely able to hobble half a kilometre without limping. Our hopes of reaching 4,000m peaks were dashed by both this and unusually heavy snow that winter that left the mountain campsites closed for repairs. Instead, we diverted to Idyllwild to climb routes on the iconic 2,696m Tahquitz Peak.

We were met by unseasonablly wet weather and thunderstorms from Saturday through Tuesday. We only had until the Saturday morning at latest to climb, and the weather lost us at least one ascent day as well as a rest day. On the first Sunday evening, we had all the weather apps open, looking for a weather window for the following morning. There was a lot of variation in forecasts, but it looked likely to us that any storm would break in the mid to late afternoon, as it had done on our first day.

At 4am my alarm woke us, and stepping out the camper van (a luxuriously stark difference between this trip and my last to California in 2008) we were greeted by the phenomenon of heat lightning — manic flashes too far away to be heard. We aborted and went back to sleep. By 9am we were up again and the forecast looked marginally better, and so eager (too eager) we jumped in the truck and headed up to the trail head.

We started at 9.30am — 4 hours later than originally planned — and at 10.15am had made the steep 430m ascent up to the base of our route, the quintessential 5.4 — The Trough. By this point, it had begun to lightly rain, and we took cover under a tree to assess. We talked about the times in the mountain crags of Eryri and the Lake District when we had climbed all day in the rain. Largely forgetting that was over ten years past when climbing dominated everything that we did. I shared an anecdote of how mountain historians could always tell when foul weather struck in the Alps, as the only names in the summit logbooks would be British, Welsh or Scottish.

As we studied the route description, we realized we were a little too low for the start of the route, however an easy enough crack system would take us up and add an extra pitch of climbing. If the weather got worse, we would be able to abandon our route at the normal start. If we had to abandon later, we could rappel from the next ledge. My friend took the first lead, the rain continued, and we discovered that granite is like glass in the wet. Easy climbing became slow, but eventually it was my turn. CRACK!

Realising the thunderstorm was on us far earlier than expected; I flew up that pitch, all tiredness and concern over my leg vanishing in a flash. We focus on our immediate safety: identifying the descent route (slabs leading off rightwards); cleaning the anchor; managing the rope well enough that we could use it for a quick rappel from a tree if needed. We found shelter in a small cave and paused for a minute while thunder rolled overhead. We then dashed for the tree line, sliding down a gully that had become a waterfall.

This was Single Loop Learning. This focuses on correcting actions based on feedback to improve performance, without questioning underlying assumptions or beliefs. With Single Loop Learning, we ask ‘what can we do to move faster in a Thunderstorm’. At this level of reflection, our ideas for improvement might include learning to climb faster on wet granite; keeping the rope in tight coils at each belay; and constructing anchors that can be dismantled in moments. And keeping calm under pressure. Oh man, I did not. These are all good skills to cope in a dangerous situation, but remain reactive to a situation that has already unfolded.

As we made our descent through the pine forest back to the truck, we began to reflect on how we had got into this situation. We were aware of the forecast, had a plan to leave early to minimize this, and yet had still headed up the mountain late anyway.

By reflecting on our decision-making, we shifted into Double Loop Learning. Why did we start the climb despite the possibility of a thunderstorm?

We evaluated the assumptions that led to this decision, such as:

• Why did we underestimate the weather forecast? We had used 3 different weather apps and chose the most optimistic, not the most realistic.
• Were we overly focused on completing the climb, ignoring potential risks? Our investment for a week of climbing was high, this skewed our risk profile.
• How can we better evaluate weather conditions and make safer decisions in the future? A little bit of research made it clear that applying the same weather logic from the UK to California wasn’t going to cut it. The UK mountains rarely get thunderstorms because of the higher latitude. We agreed that rain clouds meant no climbing.

Double Loop Learning involves not only adjusting actions based on feedback, but also examining and potentially changing the underlying assumptions and strategies that guide those actions.

Back at the camp ground, with a whole day of decompression ahead of us, we began to talk more deeply about our values and beliefs in the importance of completing (or starting!) a climb. We entered Triple Loop Learning, questioning our core values and beliefs:

• What is the underlying motivation for our climbing, and how does risk factor into that? For me, climbing is about mental wellbeing. It’s not about climbing hard, climbing fast, or climbing dangerous. Quite the opposite, really. In fact, my greatest times are high up on a rock face sitting at a belay and looking out across the world.
• Are personal biases influencing our risk tolerance? We were trying to recapture the spirit of a decade ago, largely without the groundwork (and especially fitness in my case!)
• How can we align our climbing philosophy with a greater emphasis on safety and responsible decision-making? We decided that we didn’t need to be solely focused on the bigger routes, across the valley Suicide Rock was a shorter crag that offered high quality routes. It's rarely climbed in the summer due to the heat, but we were happy waking up at the crack of dawn to get some climbing done. There was bouldering lower in the valley that diminished the risk of storms even further, and we also agreed that even a walk in the valley was an option that would be fun.

Triple Loop Learning goes deeper by questioning and challenging the core values, beliefs, and paradigms that drive an organization’s decisions and actions, leading to transformative change and potential redefinition of goals and strategies.

Through the lens of an agile coach, our adventure naturally emerged as a microcosm of agility, illustrating the significance of adaptability and responsiveness in the face of evolving challenges. Just as we transitioned from single loop learning to double loop learning — tweaking strategies based on real-time feedback — I reflected on how businesses can similarly benefit from continuous refinement through introspection.

It was the exploration of triple loop learning that truly enriched our perspective. In sync with agile tenets that prioritize “Responding to change over following a plan,” we embarked on a significant reassessment of our climbing values and risk perception. This inner analysis led us to redefine success, align our core beliefs with actionable steps, and embrace decisions that harmonize safety with progress. The synergy between our climbing philosophy and the agile ethos was evident — much like our recalibration on the cliffs, businesses can leverage triple loop learning to foster adaptability, champion change, and ignite transformative progress.

The following day, we climbed 2 routes on Suicide Rock before the hint of thunderclouds led us down to the Idyllwild pizza places. In the days that followed, we climbed two longer routes on Tahquitz peak. When we shifted our goal to enjoy great climbing safely in the mountains, and not specific routes, the opportunities to accomplish our goal magnified exponentially. To me, this is an embodiment of how agile principles can amplify achievements, broaden horizons, and help guide us to future adventure.