To many people an emphasis on the concept of unlearning sounds like an oxymoron. After all, why focus on unlearning when all of us have so much learning to do?
It's a good question but I'm convinced that unlearning is a critical skill and should even be taught as early as kindergarten. The reason is because if people approach the world from the perspective that they are going to have to unlearn many -- but not all -- of the things they learn, this will lead to the cultivation of two important characteristics.
First, unlearners learn to constantly question things. If one adopts the premise that knowledge will have to learned, unlearned and relearned throughout life, it is easier to question one's assumptions. All too often, however, many of us simply accept what we have learned as fact and never go back and revisit the assumptions that lead us to adopt to our erroneous conclusions in the first place. And, as a character on the Mary Tyler Moore Show once famously said, "when you assume, you only make an "ass" out of "u" and "me."
Second, by creating a culture of unlearning, a person (or an organization) will, by design, become more curious. This is perhaps a natural by-product of the first characteristic but I think it goes a little deeper in the sense that curiosity sharpens a person's ability to spot new ideas as well as see things in a different light or from a fresh perspective. And this skill is critical in helping people and organizations more quickly realize that they have to rethink their worldview because either the underlying conditions (which lead to the original knowledge) have changed or, alternatively, new information or knowledge has come to light which renders the old knowledge obsolete.
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