30 January 2023

Unlearning

Welcome to Love Mondays, a weekly newsletter designed as a 3-minute hit to fire up the other 10,077 minutes of your week.

Unlearn to unlock your potential as a leader

We know the best leaders are constantly learning and searching for new knowledge, inspiration, ideas, and solutions. But to make way for all of the 'new', we need to consider shedding habits and behaviours that have grown outdated.

Lifelong learning is imperative and I've discovered there are three important facets to it - Unlearning, Learning and Relearning. Over the next 3 weeks we'll be diving into each, starting this week with Unlearning.

What habits or beliefs are no longer serving you? Write them down.

Consider: what habits and behaviours would you like to change?

Practice: unlearning habits and knowledge that are outdated or obsolete.

Decide to: embrace exploration to learn and discover new ways of achieving your goals.

Choose to evolve

So much has radically changed in the past decade, even in the past 3 years! Many of us have had to unlearn old assumptions to learn new ways of being and working. So what else can we unlearn to unleash more creativity and innovation into the future?

Unlearning is an active state helping you to free up space for newer information and insights. But it can be difficult to move from what feels natural and comfortable to exploring new ways of thinking. It's crucial to keep an eye on the ultimate goal of unlearning - growth.

I love the suggestion by Atlassian Work Futurist Dom Price for how to try unlearning. He uses a retrospective technique called the 4 Ls. Look back at your week, month or year and ask yourself what you:

Loved doing
Loathed doing
Longed to do
Learned.

Then think about how these things could inform what to continue doing, what to make time for, and what to let go of.

To help make unlearning part of your daily routine, Atlassian created an internet browser plugin called 'Daily Unlearnings' with tips, tricks, and ideas that challenge you to let go of old habits and try something new.

The world needs leaders who are agile, adaptable and comfortable challenging the status quo.

So are you ready to unlearn?

Love your Mondays.