If you've ever moved into a new house or apartment, the first few months are full of learning things about your new home. Maybe there are strange creaks in the middle of the night, or perhaps the water pipes shake if the shower tap isn't at full strength. With the change of seasons comes another set of new discoveries: If you set the thermostat at 68 degrees, will it actually be 68 degrees in your living room? The piece of equipment that does this job – or not, as you may discover – is the thermostat. It measures the temperature in the room and then sends a signal to the heating system to adjust if needed until the temperature matches the level you set.

To make sure that agile strategy efforts stay on track, we use a feedback loop. This idea comes from industrial control systems, in which the loop helps maintain the stability of the system. The thermostat provides the feedback on the heating system, for example. A system without a feedback loop can spin out of control.

LEARNING LOOPS

A room thermostat monitors temperature more or less continuously. It's not taking any other information into account; for example, when spring comes around, we need the heating system less frequently, but the thermostat doesn't know it's spring – if it did, perhaps it would have already told the heating system to start its adjustment. Instead, the thermostat just keeps checking the room temperature and sends the data on. Each monitoring cycle is completely self‐contained, unconnected from the previous ones.

Agile leaders need a specific kind of feedback loop: a learning loop. Unlike a thermostat, we don't want to start over every time – we want a feedback loop to provide information that can permanently upgrade our ability to do complex work together. Some of the best thinking about learning loops comes from management thinker Chris Argyris. He advocated for “double‐loop learning” and gave this example:

A thermostat that automatically turns on the heat whenever the temperature in a room drops below 68°F is a good example of single‐loop learning. A thermostat that could ask, “Why am I set to 68°F?” and then explore whether some other temperature might more economically achieve the goal of heating the room would be engaged in double‐loop learning.”

In other words, you want to build into your process regular “pauses” in which you can ask whether you are where you had planned to be, but also whether you have learned anything that tells you that those plans weren't the right ones in the first place. (Argyris, 2002)

Agile leaders need learning loops for two reasons. First, in complex systems we do not know what will work to change the performance of the system. We'll have to experiment to identify leverage points. Second, we need learning loops because circumstances change. The environment is not stable, so we will want to make adjustments along the way. When your team meets frequently to examine the results of your work and discuss adjustments to the next cycle, you are making sure that you have a learning loop.

We use the phrase 30/30 to refer to these meetings. The name comes from Ed's earliest work in Oklahoma City. As he was working with a team to develop a strategy for transforming the city's economy, his team met every 30 days to review their progress. The agenda was simple. What did we learn the last 30 days? And what will we do the next 30 days? In a 30/30, you check in on progress, review results, discuss needed changes and make adjustments. A 30/30 is simply shorthand for the next time your team will meet and what the agenda will be, in very broad terms. A 30/30 looks backward – at the last 30 days – and forward to the next 30 days.

The designation of 30/30 is flexible and may need to be adjusted as you go. When the environment is extremely turbulent, you may need to make these adjustments more often. Your network might use 7/7s, 14/14s, all the way to (very rarely) 180/180s. Our experience is that 30/30s are a good place to start.

BUILDING NEW HABITS

Learning loops are often compared to setting a new habit. Perhaps you already have habits that you have built into your life. Maybe you exercise three times a week, meditate 10 minutes each morning, read 30 minutes every day, or do some other regularly scheduled activity. It wouldn't do much good if you exercised just once a month – it's the fact that you've made it a habit that really provides the benefit to you. Setting a 30/30 is similar to this in many ways – its real power isn't in the meeting itself, it's in creating a new habit for working together.

Between the five authors of this book, we have more than 50 years of experience helping hundreds of groups adopt an agile strategy approach. When we review the initiatives we've had a part in, this is the skill that, more than any other, differentiates the successful groups from those that had more limited impact. Simply put, 30/30s provide the learning and accountability a team needs to make optimal choices and to stay engaged.

However, 30/30s do not need to be long. The more regularly you meet, the less time is needed at each meeting because team members know what the agenda is: they are ready to report in with results and to volunteer for the next steps. The level at which the team is learning becomes very high. The blame game disappears. Members find themselves enjoying accomplishing complex work and are eager to keep up the forward momentum.

The level of trust is also higher in teams that meet regularly over longer periods of time. Every time you meet, you are making a new set of micro‐commitments to one another. That trust acts as fuel to help your team reach success.

With today's technology tools and platforms, there are many variations of how to meet and how to make each team member feel a part of something bigger than themselves. Ideally 30/30s are in‐person, as the transparency of an in‐person meeting far exceeds a phone call. Second best is to use a videoconferencing medium and, if that is simply not possible, you can schedule a conference call. It's particularly important that the team meet in person for the first few check‐ins. Our experience is that three to four in‐person meetings seems to be the “magic number” for establishing trust and reliability – after those in‐person meetings, videoconference or phone calls can be effective. No matter what the medium, it is critical to assure success that team members keep to the agreed‐to meeting schedule.

PUTTING THE SKILL TO WORK: THE AGILE LEADER AS CONVENER

There are many opportunities to apply the 30/30 concept to committees, meetings, and projects you're a part of. Almost everyone appreciates meetings that are productive and efficiently managed. The agenda for a 30/30 meeting should be very clear and simple, and the meeting doesn't need to be long (30 to 60 minutes). You could use the following questions:

• What did we learn the last 30 days?
• Here's the outcome we've agreed to. Do we want to make any changes? Does everyone all still agree with the outcome we've chosen?
• Are we on track for what we're currently working on? How should we update our action plan?
• When and where will we next get together? Are there any communication problems we need to resolve?

The last question is in some ways the most important. Schedule your next meeting every time you meet. Don't leave this item until later – take care of it while everyone is together (some groups make this the first item on the agenda at each 30/30). Even if one or two people can't make the meeting, move forward. It is critical to establish the habit of convening regularly.

30/30 meetings help build a shared accountability and heightens the trust level between team members. Over time, you may find that you have a team member who consistently misses meetings or fails to complete an action, threatening the success of the group. It is important for this to be discussed at the meeting, with the focus on how we can engage the member more fully or (if needed) part ways with the member, so that others' work is not diminished by the person's lack of effort. Having 30/30 meetings helps you see these patterns quickly and helps you address them so the project does not suffer.

You can also use the 30/30 concept in your own life as you strive to be a better person and professional. Here are a few examples:

• You can commit to expanding your network through tools like LinkedIn where you can reconnect with people you know and regularly invite them to join a project you're working on.
• You can identify two people each month who need to meet each other, and make that happen through an introductory email.
• You can begin a new habit of watching a video every week that grows your knowledge.

Every 30 days, take a step back and ask yourself what you're learning and how it's having an impact. If you need to, adjust your habit to make it more effective.

Agile leaders convene regular but brief meetings that help sustain the momentum of a group's work. As 30/30s become a habit, teams build resilience and a knack for flexibility over time as they incorporate change into their projects and respond to new members, new assets and new networks. This strength‐building will be key as the group begins to take on bigger projects.