Unlearn to Learn

During summer time my family and I visited an outlying island in Hong Kong. It was a beautiful place for sightseeing, bike riding and walking. We decided to rent a bike, a tricycle to be precise, so that we can explore farther in the island. However, to my surprise, I was unable to ride the tricycle. No matter how hard I tried to steer the bike, it always went to my left-hand side instead of going straight. At first, I thought there might be something wrong with the axle or wheels so I went back to the shop and replaced the tricycle. It turned out to be the same. Then I asked my wife to try it. She got into the same problem. I was perplexed, frustrated, and I gave up trying.

He kept repeating the keyword "let go".        

I went back to the shop and asked the shopkeeper what happened. The weather was hot enough, and so was my emotion. I am sure my tone of voice was not very friendly. The shopkeeper remained calm and answered me in monotone, as if he has responded to the same question hundreds of times. He told me to “let go” of controlling the tricycle, and only hold onto the handle to guide the direction. Tricycle is a balanced vehicle. It doesn’t need any more balancing. He kept repeating the keyword “let go”. I tried. It wasn’t easy. I had to keep telling myself to “let go” of balancing the bike. Slowly but surely, the tricycle started moving straight. Occasionally it still went to the side but as soon as I let go of balancing, it went straight.

Essentially, I had to unlearn the technique of riding a bike so that I can start learning how to ride a tricycle. The unlearning and relearning process took me about 15 minutes and then I started enjoying the beauty of the breeze and scenery. As I rode down the road, I began thinking whether there are other parts of our lives that require us to unlearn previous experience before we can learn new things. Certainly, there are.

The never-ending change management

If I had to summarize the biggest lesson of the COVID pandemic in the last couple of years, I would say it is the ability to adapt to changes and stay resilient. The world has never been more VUCA[1], and there’s no sign of it slowing down. To survive, let alone to thrive, individuals and organizations must be able to swiftly respond to changes and adapt. The way we view change management must change from a one-off, project-based task to a mindset that:

·??????Change is inevitable (It will happen and it happens all the time, whether we like it or not.)

·??????Change is possible (I accept the change. I can change, and I can help my team/organization to change.)

·??????Change is beneficial (There’s always something to learn from the change.)

Change management is a big discipline and enough literature has been written on the topic, from organizational change to individual change. In this article I will switch gear and specifically focus on something related to change management but not exactly change management:?Unlearn to Learn.?

Changes often require us to let go of existing ways of doing things and adopt new ways. Therefore, mastering the technique of unlearning and relearning can speed up the change curve, reduce time and effort, and increase change effectiveness.

From Unlearn to Learn

The unlearning story I told at the beginning of the article, though a frustrating one, didn’t take me a lot of time to go from unlearning the old technique to learning a new one. However, more complicated changes may benefit from a structured process to unlearn and learn. I am going to offer a three steps process with a personal case study. Let me start with the background.

I am a full-time training consultant. Most of my work involves offering training workshops in a classroom. When the pandemic turned the world upside down a couple years back, I was stranded at home just as everyone else. It meant that all my offerings had to be put on hold (and ultimately canceled). As I sat idle at home, I began?attending different webinars and virtual workshops. Soon I realized this pandemic thing is going to last for a while so I decided to develop my skills in?conducting virtual trainings.

I tested different virtual meeting and collaboration platforms and I started conducting many trial runs on different topics with friends and associates (for free). In a few weeks’ time I felt like I have known enough to be a competent virtual trainer and I can teach people how to be one. Hence, I designed and developed my own “Train the Virtual Trainer” program and rolled out to the public. The response was positive and I have successfully conducted a number of classes. That kept me busy during the pandemic and established myself a new role: “Virtual Trainer”.

In retrospect, I?unlearned?what I knew about training service in a classroom and?learned?how to do it in virtual space. The process can be broken down into three steps.

1. Adjust mindset

When it comes to learning a new skill, most people immediately jump to the new skillsets required. While skillsets are paramount, I believe a proper mindset should precede the skillset. There are two mindsets involved in here.

1.1 Let go

Unlearning means letting go of your existing awareness of the skill, knowledge, status, ego, etc. (I call this “baggage”) that is associated with the issue on hand. Without letting go of the baggage, we will be unable to truly unlearn and relearn. For instance, as I learned to be a competent virtual trainer, I realized that I was not learning a new skill based on my existing knowledge of a trainer – I was actually learning something?completely?new from the ground up. It takes a completely different skillset to be a virtual trainer. Letting go of my previous knowledge allows me to question the status quo and creates room in my mind to absorb new things like a rookie.

1.2 Growth Mindset

Once we have let go of the baggage, we can start to learn new things. However, learning new things aren’t always smooth and easy. Setback is inevitable. Hence we need to harness a Growth Mindset, a term coined by psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck. People with a Growth Mindset believe that intelligence and skills are not inborn but cultivated. Given the right resources and strategies, any one can develop any skill. To unlearn an old way of doing or thinking things, one must believe in Growth Mindset. No one is too old or too late to learn. Believing in the opposite (a Fixed Mindset, which states that either we have it or we don’t) will only paralyze us from learning new things.

2. Learn from others

Regardless of your professions, there are always people who are ahead of us in the learning curve. During the unlearning and relearning process, it pays enormous dividends to learn from those who are successful. There are two ways to do that.

2.1 Find a role model

Find someone in your profession who is doing well in what you want to do. What did she do? How did she do it? I attended many virtual workshops during the pandemic. In each case, I observed how the trainer handled the virtual session. I would document areas that she did well and not-so-well in detail. After I have attended a number of sessions, I started to identify patterns of what makes a virtual trainer competent. I even reached out to one trainer whom I believed was the best of the best. I was being open and straight –?I like your virtual workshop and I want to learn your skills. Would you give me 15 minutes for a video call and share your expertise??When you are being genuine, most people would respond favorably. When you learn from a role model, you save yourself time and resources from reinventing the wheel.

2.2 If a big shot were in my seat, what would he/she do?

Finding a role model is about learning from a real person. The next tactic is to learn from a real person in a hypothetical situation. Imagine if someone you know, who is ultra-successful in some part of his/her life or career (in this case we call this person the “big shot”) were in your shoes, what would he/she do? In my case, I have a good friend who is in an executive position in an organization. He is very competent as an individual contributor as well as a leader. I always look up to him. When I was learning to be a virtual trainer, I asked myself, if my friend (the big shot) were in my seat, what would he do? Based on my understanding of my friend, I know he would create something unique and original and brand himself as the expert. I “took his advice” and created my own “Train the Virtual Trainer” program.

What you are doing is basically force yourself to look at the issue from a third person’s eyes. We are always good at solving other people’s problem but not so good at solving our own. This mental exercise makes us adopt someone’s perspective (someone who is super successful) in order to gain additional insight or reveal blind spot. Note that this big shot doesn’t have to be in your profession. If you don’t know any “big shot” in person, you can try some well-known big shots. For example, ask yourself, “If Steve Jobs were in my shoes, what would he do?”

3. Journal the learning process

The last step in the unlearning and learning process is to document the journey. After each unlearning and learning exercise, reflect and document your thoughts. Ask yourself:

·??????What did I do?

·??????What went well and what didn’t?

·??????What is the lesson learned?

Unless what you want to learn is a simple thing, it usually takes some trial and error to truly unlearn old habits and learn a new skill. Journaling allows you to crystalize your thoughts and learn from your experience. It strengthens your Growth Mindset as you reinforce the belief that everything is learnable as long as we try properly. Don’t over rely on our memory. What was not written is basically lost.

After I conducted each and every virtual workshop, I would document my lesson learned. I also asked participants for feedback. During the “Train the Virtual Trainer” program, I would share my lesson learned with the participants.

In sum, unlearning and relearning is a much-needed skill in the fast-changing world today. It is by no means easy, as it involves a shift in mindset and development of new skillset. By following the 3 steps process I outlined in this article, you can unlearn and relearn with ease. Riding a tricycle should not be as difficult and frustrating as my experience showed.

[1]?VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. It was a term coined by US Army to describe the unstable world environment at the end of the Cold War.