Introducing the “Every Insight Has an Outside” series – reflections on the boundaries of knowing.
Now… much has been said about the importance of learning and the techniques for doing so efficiently. These are, for obvious reasons, highly valuable attitudes and pursuits. Only, they often obscure a singular yet profoundly important aspect of development: active unlearning.
So then, let me paraphrase an old saying: “A scholar tries to learn something every day; a wise human tries to unlearn something daily.”
That is to say, there are many aspects of knowledge and experience that should be subjects to an intentional unlearning (notice an important contrast to a mere passive forgetting). Aspects, that no longer serve progress. Aspects, that prevent seeing things from new perspectives, block creativity and innovation. So why not to shake them off?:
🥀 Old, repetitive patterns of behavior, work, and thought that once served the comfort zone.
🥀 Unexamined ‘common sense’ assumptions and beliefs inherited over time from the surrounding environment and remain active in the background by inertia, almost always unnoticed.
🥀 Anchored ideas rooted in groupthink that prevent a vessel from setting sail.
🥀 Outdated attitudes and bureaucratic systems that hinder progress in environments that are increasingly novel, dynamic, and demanding.
🥀 Notions suggesting that measurable, symbolic, objective skills are superior to non-symbolic, subjective ones.
🥀 Conditioned emotional response patterns drifting beyond the spotlight of conscious attention.
Well then, as a result of intentional unlearning, we facilitate creation of a space for the emergence of ideas, prompted by the following example queries, each potentially unlocking fresh perspectives:
🌱 River viewed as a shape of flow of water versus specific pattern of land that allows water to flow in certain way.
🌱 Sea corals viewed as rounded, organic holes versus hollow structures shaped around empty spaces
🌱 Supply Chain viewed as a linear sequence of delivery versus the Supply Web of dynamic patterns of business interconnections.
🌱 A business process viewed as a sequential flow of events versus an interconnected network of interactions among humans, machines, and the environment.
🌱 Downstream food packaging and food waste versus upstream farming practices as impactful dimensions of sustainability.
🌱 Framing competition versus cooperation as the superior engine of growth.
To name a few.
Now then… what did you unlearn today?
– Greg