Unlearning as important as learning

When we stop learning we start dying - Einstein

Google, Wikipedia, Bing, always on, always connected, instant access, data, big data, meta data, micro data, online learning, staged learning, MOOC, distance learning, training, coaching, mentoring, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger, books, journals, magazines, newspapers, news websites, youtube, radio, television, networking, management theories, new management theories, old management theories, leadership, interactive leadership, immersive leadership, lead beyond authority, lead beyond your job title, soft skills, emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, empathy………….

The list goes on and on, the pace of learning, knowledge, “Wisdom”, increases every day, in a world that our evolved brains are not quite evolved to handle.

Unlearning is as important as learning in order to find room for new ways of doing things, new ideas, new business models, new organisational structures………..just NEW!

This thinking has brought some welcome relief for me as I realise that I need to unlearn stuff in order to make way for new stuff to be assimilated. In other words, my unlearning (or perhaps forgetfulness) is a symptom of the brave new world we live in. Yay, I can now excuse my addled brain for forgetting to bring in the milk this morning, or indeed that it was my distant 3rd cousins birthday 3 days ago, or that my flight was actually 3 hours ago.

Here then is where it gets interesting. For Eons the human race has been racing towards training our brains to remember stuff, important stuff, stuff that lets you survive, stuff that helps you live, stuff that links you to the past, stuff that informs the future. STUFF. In our post-industrial age, the technology age or maybe the digital age, the only way we can truly survive is to quickly learn to unlearn STUFF to make way for brand new STUFF!

But if we humans have been evolving for eons to learn to remember stuff how can we so rapidly learn to forget? More interestingly how do those that know how to remember work with those that by default know how to forget? Then you have the notion that our new workmates who are entering the workplace from schools and universities aren’t actually unable to remember much - it’s just that they have been evolving unlearning as a survival mechanism.

This is all a little fanciful though I do believe there is some element of reality within this new worldview.