Learning is the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or being taught. It’s something we all strive to spend more time on. We want to learn new skills. We continuously seek new knowledge about a better approach to our workflow and daily lives.
We block time to learn. We set goals around learning. We strive to build a learning culture.
It goes something like this: learn then apply. Learn then apply. Learn then apply.
But, do we ever stop to make sure we UNLEARN approaches, techniques, and knowledge that are outdated, inefficient, and no longer working?
On this topic, I highly recommend the podcast How Leaders Lead, where David Novak (former CEO or YUM! Brands) interviews CEOs about leadership lessons. In a recent episode, he sat down with Panera CEO, Niren Chaudhary. They discussed Niren’s phased approach for international expansion across his career in the fast casual industry.
Niren shared that unlearning was his key to success. He explained that, “One must learn. Then unlearn. Then relearn. Learning is not one continuous process or a finite process. You have to constantly learn, but then have the humility to unlearn what you think you learned as things change around you.”
Applying the Not Doing List mindset, we must proactively select what we need to unlearn so we can make way for a better approach.
Try this: pinpoint something to unlearn. Spot one outdated, ineffective, or inefficient approach that you're still allowing yourself to follow. To make way for new knowledge and a better approach, commit to UNLEARN this flawed way of working across the next month. Put it on your #NDL and commit to forget what you thought was working in the past.
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