Unlearning 101

Running Past Mental Barriers

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. Although it is a myth that physiologists considered the barrier physically impossible, what is interesting to consider is this: By 1957 another 16 runners had also accomplished the feat. In other words, it is now evident that the sub 4-minute threshold was a mental barrier to a great many runners. The story is worth keeping in mind as you struggle against certain barriers. Are they real or just mental. If the latter, the only other question you need to ask yourself is whether you will be the one to unlearn the barrier or are you content to wait for someone else to do it? The choice, of course, is yours but know this: Few people remember the second person to break a barrier. (In case you're wondering, Australian John Landy was the second man to run a sub 4-minute mile.)

Unlearn It

 It is what it is.

Fix it!

Shove it!

Make it happen.

I can't help it.

Don't doubt it.

Is it worth it?

Solve it.

F*&k it!

Just do it.

Don't question it.

Figure it out.

Name it.

You're doing it wrong.

I love it.

Screw it.

Get it done.

Believe it!

Don't believe it.

Nothin' I can do about it.

Bring it on!

Watch it.

He/She's got it.

Is it worth it?

I'll know it when I see it.

What is it? "It" is not as simple as it may seem. Frequently, "it" means different things to different people. When "it" is an issue or a problem is "it" defined in a way everyone can understand? When "it" is a behavior (e.g. I can't help it), "it" is often not a single factor but rather a complex combination of a multitude of different things.

To succeed in the future, we must all do a better job of understanding what "it"; why "it" is important; how and when "it" will get done; and who will get "it" done.

To do anyhing less just makes a mess of it.

New Keynote Presentation: The Future Demands Unlearning

 As long-time readers know, I have been focused on the concept of “unlearning” for some time now. I dedicated an entire chapter to the idea in my book, Jump the Curve and, in addition to this website, later this year I will also be releasing the first in a series of books on the topic of unlearning.

To this end, I am pleased to announce that I have developed a corresponding keynote presentation on the topic. It is a perfect motivational speech for any business, organization or institution that knows it must drive change in order to survive but is running into resistance from those “leaders,” managers, employees or customers who refuse to unlearn the old ways of doing business. Below is a brief description:

The pace of technological change is accelerating. Today’s organizations are living in a world where “constant change is the only constant.” New advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology are bringing forth exciting and unexpected discoveries every day, while the expansive and growing power of the Internet, social networking and the open-source movement are fueling the fires which threaten to consume much of today’s existing business landscape.

Life-long learning will obviously be more essential than ever in this chaotic and churning environment; but often lost in this new emerging reality of exponential change is the fact that before an organization can seize tomorrow’s opportunities it must first unlearn old, obsolete knowledge as well as unlearn the old ways of doing business.

In this fascinating, informative, entertaining, interactive and enlightening presentation, noted global futurist and best-selling author, Jack Uldrich—who has been hailed by BusinessWeek as “America’s Chief Unlearning Officer”—will not only explain why unlearning is a critical skill for your company or an organization's employees, he will also demonstrate how unlearning can help:

-- Successfully navigate a future where the pace of scientific and technological knowledge is doubling every seven years; 
-- Prepare for competition that doesn’t yet exist; and 
-- Seize opportunities which are, today, only on the periphery of their imagination.

Unlearning isn't a Black and White Issue

The future won’t be either black or white—it will be black and white. In the field of architecture and design, people are often use to choosing between form or function. In the future, as a result of advances in nanotechnology, this age-old debate will become less relevant. As proof, I submit this article discussing a new technological advance that will allow the roof of the future to be both black or white—depending upon the temperature outside. (On cold days it will be black to absorb sunlight and on hot days it will turn white to reflect sunlight and keep the building cooler.) Depending upon your perspective that might either be a cool idea or a hot new area of interest.

Stop, Yield & Unlearn

Recently, I posted an unlearning strategy which I entitled Engage in Some Situational Unawareness Training. To
make my point, I started with a little quiz about the color of the yield sign. In this spirit, I'd like to share with you this short and informative TED presentation from Gary Lauder who proposes an innovative idea for a new street sign which merges elements of the stop sign and the yield sign and, for good measure, throws in a dash of common sense (and politeness). Enjoy!

Lose Sight of the Shore

 “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” –Marcel Proust

 

Question: There is a small town that has only one street. It runs in an east-west direction and is exactly one mile in length. The town council recently granted liquor licenses to two taverns with the proviso that the establishments be situated such that they are maximized for the convenience of the town’s inhabitants as well as the tavern owners’ benefit. Where along the one mile street should the establishments be located?

Did you say that the taverns should be positioned on opposite sides of the half-mile point? This ensures that both taverns will draw an equal number of patrons but the locations are not maximized for the customers benefit. To do this, the establishments must be located at the 1/3 and the 2/3-mile marks. Under this scenario, both taverns draw an equal number of people but no one in the town walks more than a one-third of a mile.

The difference is that in the first scenario the tavern owners optimized the situation for their own benefit but that didn’t yield the best solution for the town’s residents. The situation has comparable real-world implications and it is a behavior worth unlearning because it can lead to missed opportunities.

In his book, Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond writes that one of history’s greater curiosities is the fact that the large island of Madagascar, which sits only 225 miles off the coast of Africa, wasn’t discovered by Africans. It was discovered by peoples from Indonesia -- a country thousands of miles to the east.

Much the same dynamic is at play when large and established businesses miss big opportunities close to home. Clayton Christensen argues persuasively in his book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, that the habit of listening to one’s best customers – to the exclusion of everyone else -- lays at the heart of many missed business opportunities. In cases as diverse as the disk drive, hydraulic excavator, steel and video-gaming industries, leading companies were often so focused on meeting the needs of their best customers -- who frequently claim that they only want incremental progress -- that they failed to pay attention to new breakthroughs on the fringe of their industry which were initially uncompetitive.

Over time, though, these breakthroughs got better and less expensive. Eventually, even the company’s customer came to recognize the benefit the new technology. Alas, by this time, it was too late for them to offer a comparable product at a comparable product. The result: the customer switched suppliers and left them with an obsolete product or service.

In other words, by hewing too closely to the needs of their most familiar customers they missed new opportunities lurking just beyond the horizon. The solution is to be aware of the dangers of optimizing for only one party and, instead, occasionally send small scouting parties out on the horizon to see what is next. Or, as Andre Gide, wrote, “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

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No Doubt About It ... You Need to Know Doubt

 "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." Voltaire

"A weak man has doubts before a decision, a strong man afterwards." Karl Kraus

"Deep doubts, deep wisdom. Little doubt, little wisdom." Chinese proverb

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10 Quotes on Unlearning

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3 Powerful Quotes on Wisdom

What has become unclear to you since we last met?

Ralph Waldo Emerson was reported to have greeted his friends with the question, "What has become clear to you since we last met."

I've have always loved this greeting because I believe Emerson was trying to accomplish two different things with a single question. First, he was trying to challenge his friends to "think about their thinking" and assess their progress in this most critical field of life. I'd also like to believe that Emerson was expecting his friends would challenge his own thinking and, in the process, draw him closer to some undiscovered truth.

In this spirit, I'd then like to ask you the following question: What has become unclear to you since we last met? (And, if we haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting, let me just say that I look forward to meeting -- and unlearning -- from you.)

Replace 'No Doubt' with 'Know Doubt'

 “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” --Voltaire

Question: How much of the earth is water?

Did you say somewhere between two-thirds and 75 percent? If so, you are incorrect. As John Lloyd and John Mitchinson explain in their delightful book, The Book of Ignorance, “Seven-tenths of the earth’s surface is covered by water but water accounts for less than a fiftieth of one percent of the planet’s mass.”

If it makes you feel any better, though, more recent research suggests that there may be five times as much water dissolved deep under the earth’s crust. If true, the answer may need to be revised upwards to the neighborhood of 0.1%.

In many ways our knowledge is analogous to the water covering the earth’s surface. It might look and feel substantial; indeed, it may even be the reason for our survival but there will always be so much more we will never know.

The task then is to unlearn the false confidence which our knowledge provides and replace it with the less pleasing but, ultimately more realistic, strategy of harboring more doubt. Or, as Henry David Thoreau more eloquently framed the issue, “How can we remember our ignorance, which our growth requires, when we are using our knowledge all the time.”

The answer, in part, can be found in the work of Irving Janis, who in his seminal book Groupthink, outlined six methods to help individuals – and more specifically groups of like-minded individuals – challenge their confidence of their knowledge before relying on it to make a difficult decision. Janis advised leaders:

1.   To assign the role of “critical evaluator” to all involved in the decision-making process so they can freely air concerns, objections and doubts;

2.   Keep their opinions to themselves so as to avoid subordinates from tailoring their advice or withholding dissenting opinions;

3.   Set up independent groups to work on the same problem;

4.   Effectively examine all alternatives;

5.   Actively solicit the opinions of outside experts; and

6.   Appoint a Devil’s advocate.

Janis used the Kennedy administration’s ill-fated invasion of the Bay of Pigs as a classic example of how Groupthink can lead to over-confidence in one’s knowledge, although the global financial meltdown brought on by the sub-prime mortgage fiasco is a more recent example.

Hindsight is, of course, 20/20 but if everyone from the banking and insurance industry CEO’s down to the government regulators and the consumers themselves (who over extended themselves) had been less certain of themselves and embraced some doubt the outcome may have been less severe.

For example, the parties involved might have tempered their feelings of excessive optimism and pierced the illusion of the housing market’s inevitable and continuous rise if they had conducted a more objective survey of alternatives and more thoroughly examined the risks. Similarly, by actively seeking outside experts, diverse opinions and engaging the services of a Devil’s advocate, the involved parties may have been made aware of their biases; conducted better information searches, and spent more time developing contingency plans.

As a wise person once said, “The only thing I am certain of is that there is too much certainty in this world.” In this spirit then it would be unwise to expect that all foolish and poor decisions can be avoided in the future but they can perhaps be spotted earlier; better contained; and dealt with more swiftly and effectively if more people replace statements of “no doubt” with the expression: “Know doubt.”

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Do You Know How to Manage Agreement?

Many of society's most serious problems haven't stemmed from a leader's inability to "managing conflict," instead they have been created by an inability to manage agreement. Yes, that's right, many people don't know how to manage agreement.

This idea was explored in great depth in Irving Janis' seminal book, Groupthink. But, in light of everything from the Bush Administration's disasterous decision to invade Iraq to the great financial meltdown (caused by the sub-prime mortgage fiasco), every good leader should also give serious consideration to how effectively he or she can "manage agreement."

As Harvey Mackay recently wrote, one solution is to "Say 'no' to Yes Men and 'yes' to those who say no." Or, as Alfred P. Sloan, the former president of General Motors said years ago (when the company was successful):

"If we are all in agreement on the decision then I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop some disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about."

Good advice, don't you agree?