A thing or two about Learning, Unlearning & Startups.
In all the time that I spent working with different organisations, working with different teams, one change that remained constant has been the change of processes.
We can find several differences if we sit to compare internal processes and workflows of different organisations. For example, if you compare how a large enterprise works with how a startup works, it would be easier to list down the similarities than trying to list the differences.
If I talk about what I learnt from the constantly changing circumstances, I cannot miss out on the chance to talk about ‘Unlearning’!
I guess I cannot write enough about the importance of Unlearning in the process of Learning, but I can, sure, share a glimpse of the points that I gathered all this while.
Several new types of economies are popping up, like, for instance, the “gig economy”, the “skill economy”, and more. The demands of the modern work world are changing. Here’s where the importance of unlearning slowly creeps in!
What Is Unlearning? The simplest way to define unlearning is- to do away with the old to give way to the new.
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Employees have to unlearn habits to adapt to a more agile learning and collaborative approach to work.
Why?
Say, for example, let’s assume I start my career as a Business Development Executive in a well-known organisation. I learn all about leads and clients and sales, and 2 years later, I’m promoted to become a Project Lead.
The usual assumption is that when you get promoted, you learn more, adding newer knowledge to the stack of knowledge your brain is already loaded with.
But that’s only a misconception. Because if you look into it more closely, the moment I become a Project Lead, I need to understand that I’m not a BDE anymore. Hence, there are certain work practices, approaches, knowledge, etiquettes that were good for me and my organisation as long as I was a BDE. But becoming a Project Lead demands Unlearning old habits and adopting new and better ones.
Getting back to the imaginary story of my career, when I become a Team Lead, after probably 3 years of working as a Project Lead, again there will be habits, approaches, etiquettes that I will need to unlearn as a Team Lead!
And this process continues while you’re working within the same organisation.
Adding a subtle twist to my imaginary career path, after spending 3 more years in the same organisation, let’s assume I decide to join a Startup to explore my opportunities and contribute better to its growth. I leave the well-known organisation to join a brand new venture as a Department Manager. The department could probably be Sales, probably Marketing, probably both, probably more.
The moment I step into the Startup office, I have to give up my old ways of work, don’t you think? In startups, the ratio of younger people and freshers is likely to be more than the ratio of experienced people. The scenario is just the opposite in large enterprises.
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Having worked with experienced professionals, I cannot expect the same kind of response or expertise from the young minds in a startup. There will be more questions, more enthusiasm, more diversity. Team Handling in a large enterprise is going to be different from that in a startup.
Here too, I will have to unlearn all my old practices and approaches, and learn new ones to ensure maximum productivity both for myself and my team.
You basically have to choose the pieces of information that you want to and need to keep with yourself and the ones you need to discard because they’re obsolete in your current scenario.
Wondering how to UNLEARN?
Let’s divide the whole process into 4 simple steps for you:
The very first roadblock in the process of unlearning is the inability to recognise the need to unlearn. Be open to the fact that what you’re learning today may become obsolete tomorrow with a simple Instagram Update or a drastic Decline in the Stock Market.
Realising the need for unlearning is not enough. You need to be willing to expand your horizons. You need to be willing to give up past assumptions & convictions, and do better than you did before.
Once you’ve gathered all the will power you need, it’s time to ACT! Take help from your seniors, mentors, colleagues, and try to grasp the new methodologies slowly and gradually. The process doesn’t have to be fast, it has to be effective.
Learn, Unlearn, relearn- that’s the best way to go forward, and to keep repeating this process throughout your career may seem to be too taxing, but it’s worth the effort!
UNLEARNING- The term only looks intimidating. It is actually pretty simple, even though it requires practice.
Unlearning is as simple as Learning to recognise and name Pluto as the 9th planet, and then Unlearning that to Relearn to recognise and name Pluto as a Dwarf Planet!
If we could Learn, Unlearn, & Relearn when we were just 10 years old, why can’t we do that now?
