May 29, 2025 • 10 mins
Unlearning involves canceling previous learning to adopt new knowledge, habits, and processes. It requires humility, curiosity, and challenging fundamental beliefs. By questioning deep-rooted assumptions, individuals and organizations can overcome mental barriers and embrace innovative ideas. Unlearning is like cleaning filters, allowing fresh perspectives and preventing outdated knowledge from blocking new insights.
#Unlearning, #Innovation, #Curiosity, #MindsetShift, #ChallengingAssumptions, #PersonalGrowth, #FreshPerspectives
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Colig Experience podcast. In this episode, we're diving into bold insights,
(00:10):
thrilling experimentation, and groundbreaking leadership strategies that challenge the status quo.
Today, we're exploring the transformative power of unlearning, embracing curiosity,
humility, and a fresh perspective to reshape our understanding and make room for new ideas.
Ready to challenge your fundamentals and see the world differently? Let's dive in.
(00:36):
From learning to unlearning, the term unlearning describes a process of cancelling out previous
learning. By the end of the unlearning process, something that was already learned and internalized
gets erased from our consciousness. What does this cancellation process actually mean?
How can something we've already learned be deleted or become unlearned?
(00:58):
How do we perform this action? What does the practice of unlearning look like?
Before we dive deeper into the meanings of unlearning, let's establish that the unlearning
process, like the learning process, can relate to acquiring new knowledge, but it can also
relate to adopting new habits and processes. It's important to remember this when we talk
(01:21):
about unlearning. The things we're discussing in the context of unlearning are all those elements
that influence our actions, our opinions, and our decisions. Beyond what we've already said,
let's expand on three additional meanings of this cancellation action. The UN in unlearning.
(01:42):
An internal stance of humility and curiosity, challenging fundamental beliefs, and treating
knowledge as a filter, curiosity, and humility. Our ego manages us. This isn't new. Life offers us
a variety of learning opportunities. This isn't new either. We're surrounded by people from whom
we can learn. Many things. We can learn from them in the sense of knowledge transferring from their
(02:07):
minds to ours. And we can observe them to see how they do things and try to imitate them.
Imitation is considered an undervalued action, the opposite of originality. This assumption
needs some unlearning because we truly can't develop without imitating others. For us to learn
from our surroundings, we need to be in a position of curiosity and humility. Curiosity means wanting
(02:34):
to listen and understand what the other side has to say when we know how to release the automatic
judgment we have when listening to others' opinions. When we don't reduce them to frameworks,
we've predetermined about them. And when we assume they have something to teach us.
Let's consider a real example from our work with a major media agency. The senior leadership team
(02:56):
was struggling with adopting programmatic advertising because they had deep expertise
in traditional media buying. Their knowledge of relationship-based negotiations and premium
placements had served them well for decades. However, when younger team members suggested
automated bidding strategies, the leadership initially dismissed these ideas because they
(03:18):
didn't fit their mental model of how effective media buying should work. The unlearning process
required them to approach these conversations with genuine curiosity about what the junior staff had
discovered, rather than automatically filtering their suggestions through established practices.
Curiosity is authentic interest in what people around us think and feel. Not because we should do
(03:44):
this, but because it matters to us. Because we genuinely want to know. This happens if we don't
place ourselves at the centre all the time, if our ego shrinks a bit and gives space for more
people to enter our sphere of interest. This leads us to humility. To learn something new,
we need to suspend our ego, set it aside, and for a moment become beginners, people who don't know,
(04:10):
who need others to learn from them. This is an interesting point because there's an
inverse relationship between how much we declare this position and how difficult it actually is
for us to be in it. We know how to say we have no problem learning from everyone, but in reality,
it's not really that easy for most of us to be in a position of dependence on others.
(04:34):
Challenging fundamental beliefs. Beneath every action we take, beneath every decision we make,
and beneath every position we adopt, lie basic foundational assumptions through which we see
the world. These are our beliefs about how the world operates. These beliefs are the glasses
through which we perceive reality. They're the filter through which new information arrives,
(04:59):
or doesn't arrive, to us. Let's give an example. Say there's a manager who opposes working from
home. Why? Because he doesn't think it's effective. Why? Because he thinks employees
will engage in non-work related activities more than they do when they're in the office. Why?
(05:19):
Because their desire or interest is to invest more in personal matters, at the expense of work.
Why? Because his employees are generally opportunists who prefer their personal
benefit over that of the of the organization. Why? Because that's how people are. It's part of human
nature. In other words, ultimately the decision about working from home stems, among other things,
(05:45):
from a basic belief about the nature of human beings. This is just one possibility, of course.
There could be a manager who reaches the conclusion that he opposes working from home for completely
different reasons and based on opposite beliefs. Not everyone who opposes working from home
necessarily has such a suspicious attitude toward people, but it's reasonable to assume that someone
(06:09):
who has such a suspicious belief about their environment would oppose the idea of employees
working from home. We witnessed this dynamic clearly while working with a pharmaceutical company
during their digital transformation. The research and development leadership had spent careers
believing that breakthrough innovations required face-to-face collaboration and serendipitous
(06:34):
hallway conversations. When remote work became necessary, they initially resisted virtual
collaboration tools, convinced that creativity would suffer. However, as we helped them examine
these fundamental assumptions, they discovered that their belief was rooted in their own learning
preferences, rather than evidence about innovation effectiveness. Once they unlearned this assumption,
(06:59):
they became open to new ways of fostering creativity that actually expanded their team's
collaborative capabilities beyond what physical proximity had allowed. Let's return to unlearning.
The way to perform the UN action of unlearning is through working on our deepest foundational
assumptions. The more we deepen our inquiry into why we do what we do and why we think what we think,
(07:25):
and the more we clarify for ourselves what our fundamental beliefs about reality are,
the better we can understand what drives us. If we succeed in somehow challenging these fundamental
beliefs, whether by adopting different beliefs or by changing the weight given to each such belief,
we might discover that something in the way we operate in the world changes. We can do this
(07:48):
process on the individual level, meaning on his or her beliefs about the world. But we can also do
it on a team, like management, for example, or on the entire organization. It's a bit more complex,
but very rewarding. Is knowledge power? Knowledge is a filter. The knowledge we acquire throughout
(08:10):
life has, of course, very important value in shaping our role, both our formal role at work
and our informal role in life. However, this knowledge also functions as a kind of filter
that surrounds us and screens the new knowledge we can learn. The denser our filter becomes,
the more it screens out potential new knowledge, allowing less to flow in. Think about the air
(08:35):
conditioner filter in your house. It's important. It filters out materials in the air that we don't
want coming inside. But over time, it accumulates dust that blocks the airflow to the air conditioner,
until it impairs the air conditioner's function itself. To avoid such a situation,
we need to clean the filter sometimes. Some of us do this. Some of us wait for the air
(09:00):
conditioner to break down, and then remember to do what should have been done earlier.
Unlearning is the periodic action of cleaning the air conditioner filter.
Unlearning is asking which knowledge and experience we've accumulated might prevent us from seeing
and absorbing important information. Which knowledge hides from us what we don't see that we need to
(09:23):
learn? Usually we join courses, training sessions, or workshops to learn something new,
something we don't know. But the practice of unlearning asks us to examine not just what
we need to add to our knowledge, but what we might need to temporarily set aside to make
room for fresh perspectives and insights that our existing expertise might be blocking.
(09:51):
And that's the wrap for today's podcast. We explored how unlearning involves curiosity and
humility to challenge our beliefs and embrace new perspectives. Don't forget to like,
subscribe, and share this episode with your friends and colleagues, so they can also stay
updated on the latest news and gain powerful insights. Stay tuned for more updates.
Welcome to the Colig Experience podcast. In this episode, we're diving into bold insights,
(00:10):
thrilling experimentation, and groundbreaking leadership strategies that challenge the status quo.
Today, we're exploring the transformative power of unlearning, embracing curiosity,
humility, and a fresh perspective to reshape our understanding and make room for new ideas.
Ready to challenge your fundamentals and see the world differently? Let's dive in.
(00:36):
From learning to unlearning, the term unlearning describes a process of cancelling out previous
learning. By the end of the unlearning process, something that was already learned and internalized
gets erased from our consciousness. What does this cancellation process actually mean?
How can something we've already learned be deleted or become unlearned?
(00:58):
How do we perform this action? What does the practice of unlearning look like?
Before we dive deeper into the meanings of unlearning, let's establish that the unlearning
process, like the learning process, can relate to acquiring new knowledge, but it can also
relate to adopting new habits and processes. It's important to remember this when we talk
(01:21):
about unlearning. The things we're discussing in the context of unlearning are all those elements
that influence our actions, our opinions, and our decisions. Beyond what we've already said,
let's expand on three additional meanings of this cancellation action. The UN in unlearning.
(01:42):
An internal stance of humility and curiosity, challenging fundamental beliefs, and treating
knowledge as a filter, curiosity, and humility. Our ego manages us. This isn't new. Life offers us
a variety of learning opportunities. This isn't new either. We're surrounded by people from whom
we can learn. Many things. We can learn from them in the sense of knowledge transferring from their
(02:07):
minds to ours. And we can observe them to see how they do things and try to imitate them.
Imitation is considered an undervalued action, the opposite of originality. This assumption
needs some unlearning because we truly can't develop without imitating others. For us to learn
from our surroundings, we need to be in a position of curiosity and humility. Curiosity means wanting
(02:34):
to listen and understand what the other side has to say when we know how to release the automatic
judgment we have when listening to others' opinions. When we don't reduce them to frameworks,
we've predetermined about them. And when we assume they have something to teach us.
Let's consider a real example from our work with a major media agency. The senior leadership team
(02:56):
was struggling with adopting programmatic advertising because they had deep expertise
in traditional media buying. Their knowledge of relationship-based negotiations and premium
placements had served them well for decades. However, when younger team members suggested
automated bidding strategies, the leadership initially dismissed these ideas because they
(03:18):
didn't fit their mental model of how effective media buying should work. The unlearning process
required them to approach these conversations with genuine curiosity about what the junior staff had
discovered, rather than automatically filtering their suggestions through established practices.
Curiosity is authentic interest in what people around us think and feel. Not because we should do
(03:44):
this, but because it matters to us. Because we genuinely want to know. This happens if we don't
place ourselves at the centre all the time, if our ego shrinks a bit and gives space for more
people to enter our sphere of interest. This leads us to humility. To learn something new,
we need to suspend our ego, set it aside, and for a moment become beginners, people who don't know,
(04:10):
who need others to learn from them. This is an interesting point because there's an
inverse relationship between how much we declare this position and how difficult it actually is
for us to be in it. We know how to say we have no problem learning from everyone, but in reality,
it's not really that easy for most of us to be in a position of dependence on others.
(04:34):
Challenging fundamental beliefs. Beneath every action we take, beneath every decision we make,
and beneath every position we adopt, lie basic foundational assumptions through which we see
the world. These are our beliefs about how the world operates. These beliefs are the glasses
through which we perceive reality. They're the filter through which new information arrives,
(04:59):
or doesn't arrive, to us. Let's give an example. Say there's a manager who opposes working from
home. Why? Because he doesn't think it's effective. Why? Because he thinks employees
will engage in non-work related activities more than they do when they're in the office. Why?
(05:19):
Because their desire or interest is to invest more in personal matters, at the expense of work.
Why? Because his employees are generally opportunists who prefer their personal
benefit over that of the of the organization. Why? Because that's how people are. It's part of human
nature. In other words, ultimately the decision about working from home stems, among other things,
(05:45):
from a basic belief about the nature of human beings. This is just one possibility, of course.
There could be a manager who reaches the conclusion that he opposes working from home for completely
different reasons and based on opposite beliefs. Not everyone who opposes working from home
necessarily has such a suspicious attitude toward people, but it's reasonable to assume that someone
(06:09):
who has such a suspicious belief about their environment would oppose the idea of employees
working from home. We witnessed this dynamic clearly while working with a pharmaceutical company
during their digital transformation. The research and development leadership had spent careers
believing that breakthrough innovations required face-to-face collaboration and serendipitous
(06:34):
hallway conversations. When remote work became necessary, they initially resisted virtual
collaboration tools, convinced that creativity would suffer. However, as we helped them examine
these fundamental assumptions, they discovered that their belief was rooted in their own learning
preferences, rather than evidence about innovation effectiveness. Once they unlearned this assumption,
(06:59):
they became open to new ways of fostering creativity that actually expanded their team's
collaborative capabilities beyond what physical proximity had allowed. Let's return to unlearning.
The way to perform the UN action of unlearning is through working on our deepest foundational
assumptions. The more we deepen our inquiry into why we do what we do and why we think what we think,
(07:25):
and the more we clarify for ourselves what our fundamental beliefs about reality are,
the better we can understand what drives us. If we succeed in somehow challenging these fundamental
beliefs, whether by adopting different beliefs or by changing the weight given to each such belief,
we might discover that something in the way we operate in the world changes. We can do this
(07:48):
process on the individual level, meaning on his or her beliefs about the world. But we can also do
it on a team, like management, for example, or on the entire organization. It's a bit more complex,
but very rewarding. Is knowledge power? Knowledge is a filter. The knowledge we acquire throughout
(08:10):
life has, of course, very important value in shaping our role, both our formal role at work
and our informal role in life. However, this knowledge also functions as a kind of filter
that surrounds us and screens the new knowledge we can learn. The denser our filter becomes,
the more it screens out potential new knowledge, allowing less to flow in. Think about the air
(08:35):
conditioner filter in your house. It's important. It filters out materials in the air that we don't
want coming inside. But over time, it accumulates dust that blocks the airflow to the air conditioner,
until it impairs the air conditioner's function itself. To avoid such a situation,
we need to clean the filter sometimes. Some of us do this. Some of us wait for the air
(09:00):
conditioner to break down, and then remember to do what should have been done earlier.
Unlearning is the periodic action of cleaning the air conditioner filter.
Unlearning is asking which knowledge and experience we've accumulated might prevent us from seeing
and absorbing important information. Which knowledge hides from us what we don't see that we need to
(09:23):
learn? Usually we join courses, training sessions, or workshops to learn something new,
something we don't know. But the practice of unlearning asks us to examine not just what
we need to add to our knowledge, but what we might need to temporarily set aside to make
room for fresh perspectives and insights that our existing expertise might be blocking.
(09:51):
And that's the wrap for today's podcast. We explored how unlearning involves curiosity and
humility to challenge our beliefs and embrace new perspectives. Don't forget to like,
subscribe, and share this episode with your friends and colleagues, so they can also stay
updated on the latest news and gain powerful insights. Stay tuned for more updates.
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