In a world where people are battling with information overload, so much of the emphasis appears to be on learning something new every day. But what if I told you there could be just as much benefit in unlearning?
Typically, when we are thinking about learning, we approach it from a purely additive perspective – which means taking in new information with the goal of building on your current knowledge base. But learning can also involve subtraction. In fact, the best kind of learning also includes our ability to unlearn.
Often, our unwillingness to unlearn causes us to carry around old mental models that may be irrelevant or ineffective. For example, in describing the people who purchase their products, business leaders may still use the word consumers, which can be so transactional. While in the more collaborative world of today, it is far more powerful to think of them in more personal and synergistic terms such as customers or even co-creators. Unlearning in this instance provokes a simple shift in language that can help change our mindset to suit current times better.
If our dominant paradigms have served us well in a previous time, but are now outdated and thus obsolete, we must make changes by unlearning. When we do that, we essentially step outside of one mental model to adopt another. Three years ago when I was in India, I got the chance to drive a tuk-tuk, an auto-rickshaw usually used as taxis. Other than adjusting to the dizzying swirl of the Indian streets, I was sharing a road with no markings, few traffic lights, and littered with cyclists, cars, pedestrians, and cows, all while quickly learning the controls and driving on the left side. At the same time, I had to unlearn driving on the right because at that precise point, that knowledge was not serving me well. Choosing to unlearn things even temporarily or indefinitely can be a valuable asset and help to reassure a bunch of nervous tuk-tuk passengers.
Mark Bonchek, founder of Shift Thinking recommends three tips to unlearn:
1. Recognize that the old paradigms are obsolete. Sounds simple, but incredibly difficult since we can be unconscious to this fact, in the way fish are to water. Even if we do notice, it can still be hard to admit it because that could mean starting over and giving up control over the knowledge we once had.
2. Find or create a new archetype that can better achieve your goals. You can start with a language shift (customers rather than consumers) which can lead to a mindset change.
3. Be patient. Unlearning is not a linear process so even when you think you are not gaining ground, you are.
Progress requires learning and unlearning. Indeed, becoming the best version of ourselves compels us to continuously edit our beliefs and update them to fit the changing times and/or perspectives.
Quote of the day: We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. -Albert Einstein
Q: What is one thing you would do well to unlearn? Comment and share with us, we would love to hear from you!
The importance of unlearning