Bookworm: Unlearn

To thrive in an ever-changing world, we must continually review and update the way we do things, writes business advisor Barry O’Reilly.

 What’s the book’s main premise?

In the world of work – as in life – the only constant is change.

It follows, then, that even for a successful organisation, what worked in the past is no guarantee of what will work in the future. Yet many of us struggle to let go of the behaviours and methods that have brought us to where we are today. Ironically, the more successful we are, the harder this can be.

Unlearn, written by business advisor Barry O’Reilly – who works with some of the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial companies – explains how, in an ever-changing world, individuals and companies must enter into a continuous cycle of replacing old ideas and models with new ones if they want to keep on succeeding.

Or, as the diminutive Yoda sagely observed to Luke Skywalker, in order to progress “you must unlearn what you have learned”. This book shows us how.

What are the biggest barriers to ‘unlearning’?

Leadership conditioning – otherwise known as “the way we’ve always worked” – can be an obstacle to unlearning. As can a lack of curiosity.

However, this approach limits potential, leads to learned helplessness and encourages employees to stop trying to solve problems, especially if they are afraid of getting things wrong. In addition, corporate cultures tend to reward people simply for squeezing more productivity from existing systems, which exacerbates the situation by ossifying the status quo.

By contrast, argues O’Reilly, companies that seek to continuously learn should take a different approach and build in habits that generate ‘cycles of unlearning’.

What is the cycle of unlearning?

The cycle of unlearning is a simple framework designed to consistently deliver innovative outcomes for individuals and organisations. There are three steps: unlearn, relearn and breakthrough.

• In the unlearning phase, we are encouraged to change the way we act as leaders and to move out of our comfort zones. It’s critical to make it safe to fail so that people feel comfortable taking small steps in a new direction.

• In the relearning phase, we are encouraged to launch a number of small experiments and to course correct through continuous feedback from employees and customers.

• Breakthroughs come when we’ve had time to see what actually works in the real world.

Unlearning isn’t easy, though. As Pablo Picasso said: “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” But the rewards can be persuasive.

Could you give an example?

One high-profile example given by O’Reilly concerns Serena Williams’ comeback from injury and crushing defeat to Wimbledon and Olympic victory after a period of unlearning and relearning her game.

And those who are acing it in the corporate world also understand this need for ongoing change. For example, it’s not that the engineers at Netflix, Apple and Google are inherently smarter or more creative than those in other organisations; it’s more that their managers encourage them to experiment, tinker and explore new paths more freely. And this is how the breakthroughs come, not by focusing on doing what we have always done but better, but by finding better things to do.

What lessons can I take from this?

1. We can’t think our way to a breakthrough – only action will work.

2. We need to act, even if it’s only by taking small steps towards our goals. By breaking us out of a rut, those small steps can add up to big changes.

3. We may not win a trophy, but through unlearning, we will begin to let go of self-limiting habits, to absorb new information, and to make the breakthroughs that could prove transformative.

4. In short, unlearning can help us ‘disrupt ourselves’ and our businesses – before someone else does it for us.

What am I most likely to say after reading this book?

“What got us here won’t get us there.”

What am I least likely to say after reading this book?

“I wouldn’t try that – it’s not really how we do things around here.”