For people new to the work of Action Design, we recommend the following articles:

Argyris, Chris.  "Teaching Smart People How To Learn." Harvard Business Review, May-June 1991, pp. 99-109.

Putnam, Robert.  "Unlocking Organizational Routines that Prevent Learning."  The Systems Thinker, August 1993, pp. 1-4.

"The Ladder of Inference," "The Left-Hand Column," and "Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy" in The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, and Art Kleiner. New York: Doubleday, 1994, pages 242-259.

If you would like a book to get more depth, two suggestions:

Argyris, Chris. Overcoming Organizational Defenses. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1990.  Presents Chris’ views of organizational defensive routines and what to do about them.

Argyris, Chris.  Flawed Advice and the Management Trap.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 2000.  A critique of advice about effective leadership and organizational change, and examples of effective corrective action.

And if you want a more complete presentation of the underlying theory:

Argyris, Chris, and Donald Schön.  Organizational Learning II.  Reading, MA:  Addison-Wesley, 1996.  A revised and expanded version of their 1978 classic, taking the theory of action approach to the organizational level.