The Skill of Unlearning

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
~ Alvin Toffler, futurist and philosopher

We live in a modern society that highly values learning and knowledge – the first 25% of most folks lives are spent almost exclusively in acquiring information and skills: AKA learning in the traditional sense.

In our current American schools, exploration, questioning, intuition, and discovery get short shrift. And is it exactly those components that lead to wisdom, transformation and a deeper and more fluid way of knowing.  Or the skill of “unlearning.”

Those without “unlearning” in their repertoire see their current worldview as the only one, unquestionable and enduring. This inability to deconstruct current thinking can lead to colossal missteps, such as William Orton, President of Western Union declining to buy the patent for the telephone for $100K. His reply: “Mr. Bell, after careful consideration of your invention, while it is a very interesting novelty, we have come to the conclusion it has no commercial possibilities… What use could this company have for an electrical toy?”

Examples abound. Kodak, the first to have digital imaging capability, clung to the belief that their business, even in a digital world, would be MORE in demand, as people would print more and more, points to its undoing. Blockbuster could not unlearn their corner store business model – and as a result Netflix took them down. Gateway had 25% of the personal use PC market, but is a mere footnote now, due to the inability to let go of the belief that consumers ONLY wanted desktop computers.

Unlearning is a critical need today, where the half-life of information is measured in years (and not decades) and digitization and global collaboration are rendering things obsolete faster than the life span of a fruit fly.

What do we need to unlearn? The list can include:

• Beliefs (the world is flat)
• Process (Southwest Air and their boarding process)
• Skills & Knowledge (how to market using social media)
• Technology (need I even give an example?)

Unlearning is not just re-framing a situation – it is abandoning the old concept completely and creating the space for the new idea. A common metaphor for unlearning is removing existing vegetation to plant new. All of the old must go, lest it overrun the new. And even more apt, the energy and time needed to strip out the old far exceeds the effort of replanting.

I am writing this post from southern California – where in the midst of a 4 year drought, residents are unlearning that green lawns are good, water is unlimited and abundant, and irrigation can enable non-local plants to grow. They are filling that space with the learning that water is precious and scarce, that native plants are well suited for the local ecosystem and are drought hardy, and they have a beauty as well.

How do you learn to unlearn? Helpful strategies include:

• Developing a keen interest in what is happening outside your job, your company, your geographic location
• Being curious and playful
• Seeing knowledge as unfolding rather than static
• Observing at a deeper level
• Asking “what if”
• Asking good questions
• Being with people that ask good questions

In my next post, I’ll look at unlearning from an organizational perspective. I’ll share what some companies are doing to unlearn the ways organizations are run, and the results they are getting. Stay tuned if you are willing to unlearn!