Can we unlearn?

This is my experience sharing that happened more than a decade ago. It was a brand new two wheeler, Royal Enfield Bullet that my friend bought and it was certainly owner’s pride and neighbors’ envy.  When I saw bullet, I realized their ads tag line was not an exaggeration. Their ad tag line used to be something like this - It (Bullet) differentiates men from boys.  It had a huge presence and the exhaust sound was a feast to the bike lovers. I convinced my friend and started the bike for the much exciting ride.  When I started, I was very conscious and told myself not to make a particular mistake. I changed gears and enjoying the ride at good speed for a while and that was when I suddenly noticed a huge speed breaker.  Bullet was known for good stability and hence I was very confident to slow down.  But to my surprise, it was not slowing down at all and I’ve kept applying the break frantically. By the time I realized what my mistake was, I already hit the speed breaker and my love for the bullet ended with many bruises.

Can you guess what that mistake was?

I was not applying the break.

In those days, unlike all the other bikes, Bullets used to have break on the left side, not on the right side.

This was the mistake I told myself not to make when I started the bike but it did not help.

Points to ponder:

# The biggest learning that I had was how important and difficult it is to unlearn and unlearning is more difficult than learning.

# Alvin Toffler said, the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn- But there are many things that we have learnt in our life, at workplace and in Business that are unproductive / outdated to thrive and succeed?.  Are we willing to unlearn them? 

# Nokia’s fall– What Nokia did to Motorola, Samsung & other players have done to Nokia. Let us look at Nokia which was a huge market player and had more than 50% market share at its peak. One of the major factors for Nokia’s fall was it failed to realize and recognize the importance of mobile software. People say that if Nokia had stuck to its own operating system instead of windows, it would have survived.  Even though the windows phones were a big flop, by 2010, Nokia was introducing many windows phones. What if they introduced smart phones with android when smart phones were being introduced in the market?  They could have most probably continued to be the Market leader.  Now Nokia is extinct. That’s the price they had to pay for not willing to unlearn. A very big price indeed. (Source – newyorker.com)

# Kodak’s fall: One of the major factors for their fall was they ignored the new technology and the digital photography that was taking place, probably disrupting the film photography market. They hoped it would not last but it lasted.  Kodak was not willing to unlearn and lived in the same assumptions that people would never part with hard prints and that people valued film-based photos for their high quality.  But, digital photography not just disrupted but killed film photography and the Kodak was a big victim. (Open source)

# Unlearning some of our mindsets – Example

Let us say we have few women employees who did not show career orientation.  It does not mean that all women, that too in today’s context, are not career oriented. When you are a Manager or in any decision making position, it’s important to unlearn such past experiences and treat every women employee individually and give them their fair opportunity.

# Unlearning some of our old skills– Example

 When computerization was taking place in the industry more than a decade ago, those who learnt to unlearn their past type writing legacy experience and learnt computer skills survived and others perished.

# What stops us from unlearning?

As the saying goes, it’s what we think we know stops us from unlearning. Nothing else.

So Let us take a critical look at ourselves to find out what we need to unlearn. Let us learn to unlearn. Unlearning is important and what is all the most important is unlearning quickly.  If we don’t unlearn and quickly, we would become illiterates and just perish.

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