Learning is a constant process of everyone’s life. Each day, comes up with a new learning experience. Well, it does not just hold true for individuals but is also applicable for organizations. In this digital era, organizations strive to continuous learning. But learning becomes tough due to the difficulty of unlearning things. Learning involves acquiring new things in addition to the existing skills. While, unlearning refers to the ability to step out of the already created and followed mental block to accept and follow the new process.

The same is the case with organizations. Organizations have been following the old traditional ways and the old mental block or model of thinking sustains. As rightly said by Albert Einstein, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” We need to unlearn the push model of marketing and explore alternative models. Instead of customers being consumers, we could have relationships with them in a variety of roles and social aspects.

The process of unlearning has 3 parts:

• Recognition about the ineffectiveness of the old mental model or paradigm: This is the foremost method to be adopted for unlearning. We need to consider and understand the ineffectiveness of the old mental paradigm which is the greatest challenge. It becomes very trying to accept that that the old model has become obsolete and irrelevant as we already make it a habit to use this old paradigm, unconsciously to solve our problems.

• Look out for a better way or a new model: Once, we understand the ineptitude of the existing model, we should start looking for a new model and should gradually accept it. With the evolution of new problems, there arises new ways of solving it too. This espousal of new model gradually takes over the old and grows to be more beneficial in due course for organizations and individuals

• Instill the new mental habits: The last but not the least step is to ingrain the newly developed mental habits. The tendency will be to fall back into the old way of thinking and therefore the old way of doing. For example, when you are talking about your customers, catch yourself when you call them “consumers” — this corresponds to a transactional mindset. The shift in language helps to reinforce the shift in mindset.

Thus, practicing unlearning will make it quicker to adapt and follow it. The place to start is by unlearning how we think about learning.

Written by Faber Ramya Pillai