5 Ways to ‘Unlearn’ at Work
Leaders are increasingly looking for employees who can “unlearn” old ways of working and move on quickly to what’s next.
Athletes. Goldfish. Improv actors.
This trio has a trait in common that leaders are looking for more than ever in their employees: a short memory span.
Well, technically, leaders are calling it the ability to “unlearn,” but what they’re really talking about is a readiness to forget old ways of working and move on quickly to whatever is next. For athletes, the job is never about the last play; it’s about the next one. For improv actors, it’s the next line, the next scene. And goldfish—well, according to Ted Lasso, they’re the happiest species on earth in part because all they do is move forward.
Employees will need this ability to forget in order to keep pace with how work is changing, says Flo Falayi, a senior client partner in the Leadership and Executive Development practice at Korn Ferry. “People rarely struggle to learn something new,” he says. “They struggle to let go of what previously made them successful.”
Korn Ferry’s experts share some tips that can help you with your own “unlearning” curve:
Sequence the change.
Your job won’t change all at once, says Tamara Rodman, a senior client partner in the Culture, Change, and Communications practice at Korn Ferry. New tools, tasks, and workflows are more likely to evolve over time. She advises implementing one new way of working at a time rather than trying to absorb all of them simultaneously. “Think in terms of sequencing change,” she says.
Slow down.
One of the challenges of unlearning is that leaders position it as a productivity and efficiency issue. To employees, that doesn’t read as “try new things”—it reads as “work harder and faster,”says Dennis Baltzley, global head of leadership development solutions at Korn Ferry. As a result, people try to lean on what they know instead of stepping up and trying something new. “The definition of unlearning has to change from ‘reduction of time’ to ‘tolerance for experimentation,’” says Baltzley.
Enhance or retire.
Unlearning doesn’t mean erasing knowledge. It means weakening the dominance of an old pattern to make way for a new one. One way to do that, say experts, is to conduct a skills audit every six months (that’s how fast things are changing). Ask yourself which of your skills are becoming less valuable, which are increasingly being automated, and which are emerging. Then, Rodman says, gauge which skills you want to keep, augment, or discard based on how your job is changing. “This technique is actionable and gives people a sense of agency,” she says.
Reapply for the job.
Well, not literally. Rather, Falayi advises, consider this question: If you were starting out today in your current role, what would you do differently, and what new skills would you need? “This helps separate what the role currently requires from the habits, assumptions, and routines you’ve accumulated to do the job over time,” he says.
Run small experiments.
Change doesn’t happen without evidence that the new way is better. Confirming this requires some experimentation, says Falayi. For instance, you might compare your own results against AI’s in a task like drafting a proposal. “Small wins build confidence, create accountability, and make unlearning feel less risky,” says Falayi.
Learn more about Korn Ferry’s Leadership and Professional Development capabilities.
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