As we approach the new world of work, corporations can no longer assume that their previous business models and methods of organizing will build or sustain their sources of competitive advantage. Increasingly, companies are adopting designs such as continuous transformation, virtual teams, and cellular organizations to define how they will revamp their strategies and ways of doing business for the next century. (David and Robert,1999) The exact practices that propel companies forward today, may hinder their growth tomorrow. To thrive, it is vital to cultivate the ability to shed entrenched operating procedures from the mind.

It is referred to as ‘unlearning to learn’. Learning to unlearn is a prolonged process that requires significant time investment. It is crucial to introduce a new process while the current process is still in motion. Consequently, unlearning opens the mind to new approaches and challenges prevailing processes. For instance, Apple introduced the iPhone while the iPod was at its peak. This introduction caused a dramatic decline in iPod sales, but smartphone sales soared. If businesses demand rapid transformation to stay relevant, the solution is unlearning.

Outdated ways of thinking and doing need to be constantly discarded to make space for methods that lead to innovation and growth. At its core, unlearning is the art of stopping patterns. It is not about forgetting things but shifting the paradigm or current thinking and doing patterns. It requires identifying practices, rituals, or behaviors that will not be as valuable to organizations in the future as they were in the past. The underlying problem is not about learning, it is about unlearning. In every aspect of business, from strategy to marketing, organization, and leadership, we operate with mental models that have grown outdated or obsolete. To embrace the new logic of value creation, it is imperative to unlearn the things learned previously. When we unlearn, we step outside the mental model to choose a different one, which is in hyper performance.

Unlearning is learning

When unlearning, a space is created in the mind to learn new things. Unlearning is not about forgetting. It is about the ability to choose an alternative mental model or paradigm. If organizations and people continue to adhere strictly to patterns or to the current body of knowledge, it becomes difficult to unlearn things and ultimately no new learning will take place. When we unlearn, we step outside the mental model (out of the box) in order to choose a different one. If the mind is open to unlearning, it tends to learn things automatically. Hence, unlearning is a necessary condition for learning new things. The role of unlearning is vital in today’s workplace. Employees need to unlearn to progress alongside their company and work more effectively (Susan Dumas, 2019). Long-term employees often have a hard time unlearning especially if they have been doing something the same way for a long time. It is not impossible to promote unlearning as long as there is an openness towards it. Instead of demanding compliance, a manager should foster a sense of willingness to unlearn and learn something new.

Unlearning is the art of cleaning your mind

Unlearning is the art of discarding something that we learned earlier. To know what to unlearn, you need to be selfaware about your thoughts, beliefs, and your habits. Today’s workforce needs to embrace continuous unlearning to move forward. Employees must continue to unlearn, learn, and relearn to stay relevant in today’s modern, digital workforce. Change is continual, and to stay current and avoid becoming obsolete, unlearning is a vital component for 21st century employees. The most overlooked aspect of learning is the process of unlearning. Everyone has acquired knowledge that built their mountain of ideas, which could still be viable or outdated. In order to unlearn and move forward, employees must be willing to work through the process. Our world is in constant flux, and the most successful companies will be the ones that unlearn, learn, relearn and evolve with it. No unlearning creates no room in your mind for learning and you finally end up with no change. In short, understanding the process of unlearning can make your organization more agile, more competitive and progressive than ever before.

The Art of Unlearning

Unlearning is often unpleasant for most people. It transpires through a process of "extinction" which involves the removal of reinforcements. Extinction refers to the process of no longer providing the reinforcement that has been sustaining a particular behaviour. Unlearning could also be described as stripping the existing paint of a wall, so that new paint sticks. As you know stripping involves 70% of the job while repainting only takes up 30%. The rate of unlearning accelerates during a crisis when the current pattern or process becomes impractical (e.g. Tsunami, COVID- 19 etc.). Strongly ingrained habits of individuals are challenged during times of crisis, leading to a quicker unlearning old things to grab new ways of doing things for the purpose of survival. There are various approaches to unlearning something in light of new information. The first is a straightforward refutation of the old idea. For example, you believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first American president but then read in a book, that it was George Washington, you might completely revise your view as long as you rely on the sources. In all these cases, it is necessary to first relinquish what you thought you knew to make room for new understanding. The things we believe we know are often unknown. The ideas, philosophies and truths that guide our lives may be convenient approximations, but often the most accurate portrayal is far stranger. There are few methods of unlearning what you thought you already knew.

• Seek Added Knowledge

One way to begin unlearning is to seek additional knowledge in familiar areas and then use that new knowledge to start revising and modifying old knowledge. One should start with beliefs that seemed reasonable about oneself, and then delve deeper to encounter careful arguments that reveal why those beliefs were probably false. From that point of tension, one can begin reworking some of their old beliefs. This approach can be effective, but it is challenging, and requires a lot more patience for theoretical and academic learning.

• Travelling to discover the world

Another approach is to seek other people’s experiences of the world. Travel, in this sense, can be a potent form of unlearning. While other people may not provide you with the theoretical frameworks for understanding the world, the more diverse their experiences are from yours, the more likely they are situated in a different position within the spectrum of life possibilities. Understanding how their lives differ from your expectations can itself provide you with valuable insights into your own thought processes. Unlearning false beliefs by experiencing the universe is the best way of relearning, which leads to a clear paradigm shift of your thinking patterns. Travelling also allows you to change physical location, which can aid in the process of unlearning. One of the easiest ways to unlearn something is to move away from the location where you initially learned it. New surroundings can help you notice new things. This can be seen as a form of psychological manipulation, as you are essentially tricking your brain into unlearning by immersing yourself in new surroundings. This enables you to let go of old ideas and adopt new ones. It is another subtle way of helping you break a habit.

• Exploring and Experiments in life

A third approach to unlearning is to be more adventurous in your experiments in life. While pure randomness can have a destructive quality, if you avoid obvious risks, you can explore many directions in life more thoroughly than most people do. Learning is crucial because it shapes you as a person, enriching you with knowledge, boosting your confidence and bringing you happiness. Continuously learning and acquiring new knowledge makes you richer in thoughts. Everyone has regrets about their past or mistakes they have made; however, what is important is to learn from these mistakes. People respond better to the unlearning process when they not only embrace it but also have specific goals. Socially and emotionally, people function better when they are given two to three key goals. The most effective unlearning process provides clear and challenging goals without undermining the learner’s sense of ownership of those goals.

The Takeaway: Knowledge Entrepreneurs

What the knowledge economy needs today are fewer knowledge experts and more knowledge entrepreneurs. The difference is clear: Knowledge experts are satisfied with information, but they may find it difficult to branch out and learn in new ways. Knowledge entrepreneurs thrive on challenges and chaos, driven by an unquenchable thirst for learning, growth, collaboration, and value creation. To address the demands of a changing world, we must move beyond merely generating ideas and take them from the drawing board to the real world. This can only be achieved with the courage, conviction, and commitment that comes with being an entrepreneur.

Dr. D M A Kulasooriya
Director General
National Institute of Business Management
Email: [email protected]