Communication
Unlearning: The Challenge of Change
Summarized using AI
Unlearning: The Challenge of Change
by Jessie ShternshusUnlearning: The Challenge of Change presents a thought-provoking examination by Jessie Shternshus on the necessity of unlearning in both personal and organizational contexts. The talk highlights how adapting to new knowledge and practices requires us to discard outdated mental models, resulting in a more flexible and innovative mindset.
Key points discussed include:
- Definition of Unlearning: It involves moving outside of existing mental frameworks to discard outdated or incorrect knowledge.
- Levels and Types of Unlearning: Unlearning occurs at three levels - individual, team, and organizational. There are also two types: unlearning without forming new habits and unlearning when habits have been established.
- Challenges of Unlearning: Shternshus shares personal anecdotes, such as the struggle to forget habits learned in childhood (like buckling a seatbelt) and the humorous yet eye-opening experience of trying to ride a reversed bike, illustrating how deeply ingrained habits can be.
- Neural Pathways: The speaker describes the brain's neural pathways that are formed during learning; unlearning requires re-routing these pathways, which is neither quick nor easy.
- Cultivating a Learning Organization: For organizations to foster a culture of learning, they must embrace unlearning by questioning existing practices, integrating fresh perspectives, and allowing newer members to express innovative ideas.
- Empathy in Unlearning: Understanding the difficulties individuals face when unlearning is crucial for effective transformation, as demonstrated through interactive exercises that mimic the challenges of adapting to new learning.
Throughout the presentation, Shternshus emphasizes the importance of continual adaptation and the need for organizations to support unlearning to stay relevant in an ever-changing environment. The conclusion encourages viewers to treat unlearning as a vital process for growth, emphasizing that adaptability is key to survival and success in both personal and professional spheres.
Incorporating humor and relatable experiences, the talk culminates in inspiring the audience to embrace the complexities of unlearning and to actively engage in practices that promote change.
Takeaways:
- Unlearning is essential for growth and adaptability.
- Organizations should prioritize creating environments that support unlearning.
- Empathy is crucial in understanding the challenges individuals face when unlearning.
- Engage in practical exercises to facilitate the unlearning process.
00:00:12.500
All right, so today we are going to be unlearning. Those of you who like learning can leave because we're not going to be learning anymore.
00:00:18.450
We're going to be talking about the challenge of change, and I would like to break your brains this morning.
00:00:25.439
So let's do this. If you would look at this, all right, and in the top left corner look at that directional word and tell me what it should say.
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What should it say? Up, correct! Everybody, what should it say? Up!
00:00:41.579
Yeah, all right. So we are all, as a wonderful big Ruby hash rocket ACR family, going to do it together and say the correct directional words going across. All right, here we go. One, two, three.
00:01:25.130
Nice! Give yourselves a high-five for all the mistakes and all the glory. Yes!
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All right, our environment in which we live and work demands us to unlearn so that we can shift and make room for something new.
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So I'm Jessie Shternshus. I'm the owner of The Improv Effect. Mike Marian said I started working probably 11 years ago, over a decade ago.
00:01:48.299
One of my very first clients in technology was Hashrocket. So I started with them when they were first starting as well.
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I work with companies big and small worldwide, helping them with communication, collaboration, and creative problem-solving.
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My unlearning journey has been very long and it's continuing to this day.
00:02:08.849
Before I started my company, I was a teacher. I worked in the school system here in Duval County and before that, I worked in television for Sesame Street.
00:02:15.930
I've done a lot of different things, and when I decided to start my company, I wanted to put everything I loved together.
00:02:21.450
I wanted to help people learn the skills that I knew and help them be better communicators, better leaders, and so on.
00:02:28.200
Last year, I got to speak in Australia at Agile Australia, and they had a lot of these signs.
00:02:34.079
You might see those in the UK as well, they drive on the opposite side of the street.
00:02:39.600
So, I was talking about unlearning, trying not to get run over, and a couple of my friends and I were speakers from the States.
00:02:45.900
We called an Uber, and we thought it was going to be okay. The Uber arrived, and we were like, 'Okay, mission accomplished.'
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There were four of us and all of a sudden my friend Sarah said, 'Okay, I'll sit shotgun, I'll sit up front.'
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She goes to open the door and is like, 'Ah!' and the driver is like, 'Ah!' He thought he was going to be mugged.
00:03:06.690
She was going to sit on his lap because he wasn’t in the correct seat in her mind.
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He didn’t know why she was about to sit down, so she slams the door back on him.
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He's like, 'Oh my god, what's going on?' Clearly, we didn’t unlearn fast enough.
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So she went around and sat in the right seat, and we were laughing hysterically because it was hilarious.
00:03:35.250
Also, we were stupid Americans! Unlearning is all around us.
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It’s hard, but it is a way of life, right? Shifting is a way of life.
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So what is unlearning? When we learn, we add new skills or knowledge to what we already know.
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When we unlearn, we step outside of our mental model in order to choose a different one.
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We discard something learned that’s false or outdated information from our memory.
00:04:06.639
It looks something like this: 'Oh, it used to work but not anymore.'
00:04:14.230
There are three levels of unlearning that happen in organizations. It occurs on three levels: individual, team, and organizational.
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There are also two types of unlearning: one where no habits are formed and another where habits are formed.
00:04:26.139
For instance, if you were to give me a book about rocket science, I might learn something.
00:04:31.930
However, I personally would have no problem forgetting it.
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If you told me to buckle my seatbelt, my parents were pretty good at that. Even though I grew up in the '80s, they made sure I buckled my seatbelt.
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So, I do it without even thinking. This would be something harder to unlearn.
00:04:51.039
In fact, a few years ago, we had a hurricane here in Jacksonville. We lost our power during Hurricane Matthew.
00:04:56.380
Even though I consciously knew we had lost our power, every time I went into a room, I would constantly flip the light switch.
00:05:03.490
It’s just something habitual; I’d go in the room, flip the light switch, even though I knew we didn’t have power.
00:05:10.419
By the time I finally realized, 'Oh, don’t turn the light switch, we don’t have power,' we already had our power back.
00:05:16.120
So again, not doing a very good job unlearning, but I was trying.
00:05:24.010
How many of you have heard this quote: 'It’s just like riding a bike?' You’ve heard that before?
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There’s this awesome video I want to show you a little bit about reverse engineering a bike.
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Welcome back to Smarter Every Day, where you’ve heard people say, 'It’s just like riding a bike.' Meaning, it’s really easy and you can’t forget how to do it, right?
00:05:45.809
But I did something that damaged my mind. It happened on the streets of Amsterdam.
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I got really scared, honestly; I can’t ride a bike like you can anymore.
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Before I show you the video of what happened, I need to tell you the backstory.
00:06:06.149
Like many six-year-olds with a MacGyver mullet, I learned how to ride a bike when I was really young. I was proud of it.
00:06:11.879
Everything changed when my friend Barney called me 25 years later.
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At work, the welders are geniuses and like to play jokes on the engineers.
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He had built a special bicycle and challenged me to try to ride it.
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He changed one thing: when you turn the handlebars to the left, the wheel goes to the right.
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When you turn it to the right, the wheel goes to the left. I thought this would be easy.
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So, I hopped on the bike, ready to demonstrate how quickly I could conquer this.
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Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Destin Sandlin's first attempt riding the bicycle.
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Yeah, yeah, I couldn’t do it. You can see that I'm laughing, but I’m actually really frustrated. I had a deep revelation: my thinking was in a rut.
00:07:10.518
This bike revealed a very important truth.
00:07:15.150
I had the knowledge of how to operate the bike, but I did not have the understanding.
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Therefore, knowledge is not understanding. Look, I know what you might be thinking: 'Destin is probably just an uncoordinated engineer and can't do it,' but that's not the case.
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The algorithm associated with riding a bike in your brain is just that complicated.
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Think about it: downward force on the pedals, leaning your whole body, pulling and pushing the handlebars, gyroscopic precession in the wheels.
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Every single force is part of this algorithm, and if you change any one part, it affects the entire control system.
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I don’t often make definitive statements, but I’m telling you right now, you cannot ride this bicycle.
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You might think you can, but you can’t. I know this because I’m often asked to speak at universities and conferences.
00:08:00.460
I take the bike with me, and it’s always the same. People think they’re going to try some trick or power through it.
00:08:07.210
It doesn’t work; your brain cannot handle this.
00:08:14.229
For instance, I offered this guy $200 just to ride this bike 10 feet across the stage.
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Everybody thought he could do it.
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Whenever you're ready.
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Good, no, no! You have to keep your feet.
00:08:36.340
Like just our own Middle Eastern music.
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Keep your feet on the pedal.
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Once you have a rigid way of thinking in your head, sometimes you cannot change that even if you want to.
00:09:03.180
Here’s what I did: it was a personal challenge. I stayed out here in this driveway and practiced about five minutes every day.
00:09:10.790
My neighbors made fun of me. I had many wrecks, but after eight months this happened.
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One day I couldn’t ride the bike and the next day I could.
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It was like I could feel some kind of pathway in my brain that was now unlocked.
00:09:30.690
It was really weird, though; it’s like there was this trail in my brain.
00:09:37.300
If I wasn't paying close enough attention to it, my brain would easily lose that neural path and jump back onto the old road.
00:09:44.560
Any small distractions at all, like a cell phone ringing in my pocket, would instantly throw my brain back to the old control algorithm.
00:09:51.670
But at least I could ride it.
00:09:58.190
My son is the closest person to me genetically and he’s been riding a normal bike for three years, which is over half his life.
00:10:05.570
I wanted to know how long it would take him to learn to ride a backwards bike.
00:10:12.610
So I told him if he learned how to ride a backwards bike, he could go with me to Australia and meet a real astronaut.
00:10:19.450
This is how it starts.
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Look at this; this is such a big deal!
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Get up; you got it! Did you see how his brain?
00:10:39.060
He, in how many weeks—how long have we been doing this? Two weeks!
00:10:46.200
He did something that took me eight months to do, which demonstrates that a child has more neural plasticity, am I even saying that right?
00:10:53.230
Than an adult, so other than being a great dad, why did he?
00:11:01.900
Well, first of all, there was less to unlearn.
00:11:07.640
Also, children approach things in a different way, right? They approach it with curiosity.
00:11:14.780
They ask, 'Why? Why? Why?' They have a different way of wanting to learn as well and a lot less to let go.
00:11:21.440
While I was researching for this talk, I learned about Einstein.
00:11:27.190
I found it interesting that some of the most profound things he learned were in the beginning of his career.
00:11:32.860
Even though he was gaining more knowledge, the things he’s most well-known for actually happened in the first few years of his career.
00:11:39.370
I think this relates to work. When you think about the newbies, the new people that are onboarded onto your team, a lot of times we disregard what they have to say.
00:11:46.970
In reality, we should listen to their perspective because they bring a lot of interesting and innovative ideas.
00:11:53.110
They’re new, and they’re not necessarily the experts, so we should be giving them a seat at the table and a voice at the table as well.
00:11:59.600
When I would teach improv classes here in Jacksonville, I typically had a group of students who were new to improv and then a group who had done improv before.
00:12:05.230
At first, the students who had done improv before seemed to be going faster, but in improv, just like when you're forming a new team in technology or in anything, you really want to create a culture for that team from scratch.
00:12:12.800
What would happen is the newer people, who had never done improv before, would rock it past the others.
00:12:20.360
At some point, those who had done improv before would plateau, and the newer ones would just rock it way past them.
00:12:29.220
This is the same thing you’ll see on teams a lot of times because they’re not shedding the old way of doing things.
00:12:36.000
It’s interesting to think about. I like this quote: 'In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.'
00:12:43.320
So, if you’re sitting next to someone, I want to do a little exercise.
00:12:49.960
You have to be sitting face-to-face, and we’re going to do an exercise called ‘space numbers.’
00:12:55.120
So, watch me and Andrew for a second. It’s nothing too awkward, I promise.
00:13:01.150
This is what’s going to happen: person number one is going to be drawing numbers in space from one to ten.
00:13:06.430
The other person is going to be mirroring them. Andrew, if you’ll come here.
00:13:11.350
So, if I do one, you’re just going to mirror my one in space, right? Then I’m going to do two, and you do your best to mirror me.
00:13:17.710
If we mess up, we’ll just high-five and move on. It’s just a game; it doesn’t matter.
00:13:23.560
We’ll switch, and by the time we get to ten, Andrew will do a one and I’ll mirror him. Let’s go all the way to ten.
00:13:30.320
Everybody have a partner? If you don’t, Andrew will be your friend. All right, let’s go!
00:13:37.000
Remember to high-five if you mess up; it’s okay!
00:13:42.250
Try to go all the way to ten.
00:14:10.000
Your brains are messed up; that’s fun! You’re welcome!
00:14:20.500
So how many of you did it perfectly? How many of you messed up?
00:14:28.180
What was hard about it? It was hard because of different handwriting.
00:14:35.000
So how many of you messed up on two? How many messed up on four?
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What happened at four? Yes, closed versus open.
00:14:48.720
What about you? You got past four, but seven just killed you. Fancy seven! You’re like, making yours all fancy!
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How could you set your partner up for success? How could you make them successful?
00:15:04.250
If I were to have you do it again, how could you tell them ahead of time what you’re going to do?
00:15:10.860
Move slowly, right? Did anybody have a partner that was like no-no?
00:15:18.040
Imagine if they had done it on a trampoline, that could have been worse!
00:15:25.520
So, you want to slow down; you don’t want to show off that you’re so great at space numbers.
00:15:31.050
If it’s hard to unlearn how to do one number, like a 2 or a 4 or a 7 backwards, it’s really hard to do a digital transformation.
00:15:38.600
It’s really hard to do an organizational transformation and unlearn what people have been doing all along.
00:15:46.860
If it’s that hard to do a 4 backwards, have some empathy for what it’s like to unlearn a whole transformation.
00:15:55.050
What’s happening in the brain when you’re unlearning?
00:16:02.600
When we learn, we form deep neural pathways in our brain, specifically in a part called the basal ganglia.
00:16:11.320
I like to think of it visually as a green grassy field.
00:16:17.230
If this was a big green grassy field and I was learning something, every day I did something habitually like put on my seatbelt.
00:16:23.280
I would walk across the grassy field from point A to point B, so I keep doing that over and over again.
00:16:31.550
What’s happening to the grass in the field? It’s getting packed down or killed.
00:16:39.579
If I tell myself one day, 'I don’t need a seat belt, I’m going to do something different,' I’m going from A to C.
00:16:45.390
I start a new habit of being a rebel, but did the grass grow back overnight? No, it did not.
00:16:52.210
Unlearning doesn’t happen overnight.
00:16:57.800
With neuroplasticity, it won’t happen right away.
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Think about what’s happening in our brains. Unlearning is hard and long, but it’s necessary.
00:17:11.930
Because what got you here won’t get you there.
00:17:19.070
Let’s not end up like these poor fellows. That's sad, right?
00:17:25.800
So, I want to tell you a story about when I was working for the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind.
00:17:33.650
There’s a school here in St. Augustine that had reached out to my company, The Improv Effect.
00:17:41.150
They asked if we could work with their students in high school who were in a job readiness program.
00:17:49.940
They wanted help teaching them some skills using applied improvisation to get them better at communicating.
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My first thought was no. I thought everything we do relies on eye contact, and the students they wanted us to work with were visually impaired.
00:18:05.580
To be truthful, I was nervous. I had never worked with a population of visually impaired students before, and I didn’t know how to do it.
00:18:13.180
So, I made this excuse in my mind that it wouldn’t work. Luckily, I decided to take the risk and figure it out.
00:18:19.990
I eventually said yes because it turned out to be one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.
00:18:27.750
These students taught me a ton, and they were incredible.
00:18:35.100
We worked with them over five different summers, so remember that sometimes you can make assumptions in your mind.
00:18:43.130
It might not work out, but it could actually lead to something good.
00:18:50.400
Now let’s take a self-awareness selfie and examine our beliefs.
00:18:57.420
Do I need to think, behave, or do something in a new way?
00:19:04.090
Is there previous learning preventing me from thinking, behaving, or doing things in a new way?
00:19:12.060
For instance, the story I just told you, where I got blocked and said, 'Oh no, I can’t do it, it's impossible to do without sight.' I was wrong.
00:19:20.330
Is what I'm trying to learn a threat or challenge to my identity, or how I see myself or the world?
00:19:28.230
Would trying harder give me the results I'm looking for, or might it create more entrenchment?
00:19:31.200
There’s no mind harder to change than one that's been hugely rewarded for not changing.
00:19:39.600
Think about yourself or other people in your organizations. People you know who have been rewarded for doing something a certain way.
00:19:47.940
Why would they want to change if all along they've been rewarded for doing it differently?
00:19:53.250
Unlearning is all around us; it’s when we go somewhere else, it’s a new programming language, it’s the new design.
00:20:01.600
It’s new furniture, new computers, new banking systems; we’re constantly having to unlearn.
00:20:07.060
How many of you are familiar with this sign? Yes!
00:20:13.020
How do we know what gender that sign is supposed to be? By what they wear, right?
00:20:19.800
Have you seen this? My friend Tonya Catan was asked to do a marketing campaign.
00:20:25.720
She was given the task to find something we all see and recognize and shift our way of thinking.
00:20:33.320
So, she picked the bathroom sign and thought, 'What if it were never addressed? What if it were a cape?'
00:20:40.300
This became a really popular movement.
00:20:46.260
If you go to 'It Was Never Addressed' you can see all these different people wearing capes and doing different things with the signs.
00:20:55.520
It’s a fantastic movement she started, reminding us to question things we take for granted.
00:21:03.260
What if we did? What if we stepped back and said, 'What if it was something different?'
00:21:10.060
So, let’s do some of our own.
00:21:15.530
Is this a man throwing something in the trash or a juggler giving up on his lifelong dreams?
00:21:22.560
What do you think this is? What could this be?
00:21:29.950
A guy about to ship himself somewhere? Yes, that’s whiplash!
00:21:36.180
What else? A magic trick? What about him putting a box on a dolly?
00:21:44.670
Who’s he dancing with? He’s dancing with a refrigerator.
00:21:50.390
Yes! It’s a teapot going up the attic stairs! The sign said pull.
00:21:56.370
Let’s do another one. What’s this?
00:22:04.120
Drop the mic! I don’t think we need any more after that. Just bacon!
00:22:11.950
Okay, cool. So how do we become unlearning organizations?
00:22:18.560
An organization that cannot unlearn will never become a learning organization.
00:22:25.090
Transformation is not a transactional activity; it's ongoing and changes over time.
00:22:33.400
When I get a call saying, 'Hey, we're having challenges in our organization, nobody gets along, and our projects are never getting done, can you fix it next week by lunchtime?' I say, 'What are you talking about?'
00:22:41.420
These things take small steps. They happen over time; they won’t miraculously happen overnight.
00:22:48.520
Mental models eventually become company values.
00:22:54.580
When you start a company, especially if you’re a startup, your mental models become core values.
00:23:01.470
You need to look at whether these values still match who you are right now. What got you here may not get you there.
00:23:08.030
Sometimes you need to unlearn those values and figure out something new, as change is hard.
00:23:15.030
Because people are constantly playing this tug-of-war, one side saying, 'This is how we do it!' and the other saying, 'I’m trying something new!'
00:23:20.970
Think about companies that refuse to adapt. They were great in their time.
00:23:26.330
Some are even trying to come back—like Toys 'R' Us. There’s one Blockbuster left in the world.
00:23:33.050
These were companies that were at their peak and refused to adapt.
00:23:39.330
What are some examples of unlearning at work? Can you think of any?
00:23:46.410
So we’re not that guy who says, 'When I was your age, things were exactly how they are now, son.' Let’s not be him!
00:23:54.750
How can we make shifts happen?
00:24:01.580
Here’s a little acronym I made up: Surface the resistance.
00:24:07.560
Hear what they have to say. Identify the value for them to change.
00:24:13.830
Find ways to break down barriers and train them with experiential methods, day by day.
00:24:20.200
How can we surface the resistance between 'hafta' versus 'wanna'?
00:24:28.680
If you’re working with a client or your team, how can you align on what they want?
00:24:36.710
Be transparent about what’s happening so they understand and feel ownership in that transformation.
00:24:44.840
Remember that unlearning is hard and empathy is required.
00:24:51.370
What was it like when you were just beginning? What was it like being onboarded?
00:24:58.960
Things were a bunch of acronyms. You weren’t sure what TDD and KPI stood for.
00:25:06.220
Maybe they meant something else at a previous job and you felt like you were speaking a foreign language.
00:25:14.600
I remember being at my first Ruby conference and hearing all the technical terms.
00:25:22.120
I was like trying to play it cool, but I really had no idea what anyone was talking about.
00:25:29.140
Remember what it’s like for the newbies, and try to sit in the pocket of being new.
00:25:36.130
This will help you have empathy.
00:25:42.100
Now, do you all have a piece of paper or something nearby? Grab that piece of paper.
00:25:48.260
I’d like you to write down something that you have to unlearn that is hard, whether personal or at work.
00:25:55.890
What’s hard for you? We’re going to make paper airplanes and we’re going to throw them at each other.
00:26:03.900
So, write down something you have to unlearn that’s currently hard, something you’re stuck at.
00:26:09.960
Make your paper airplane, but don’t throw it until I say go.
00:26:15.560
Even though you’re super excited, I know you are.
00:26:22.190
So, write it down legibly; choose the best you can.
00:26:29.230
What’s something you have to unlearn?
00:26:36.280
There it is! You can make this airplane even if you have a better model.
00:26:44.530
Make one this morning, learn it, unlearn it, and do this one.
00:26:51.950
In a second, we’ll get up and throw them at each other, but don’t do it prematurely.
00:27:04.900
So it's always at the end there when they ask what that actually means, and I have no idea!
00:27:11.240
Mine always hits my feet; if that makes any point.
00:27:17.150
I'm really bad at making airplanes.
00:27:23.040
Even with instruction, I just can’t.
00:27:29.220
Alright, maybe like five more seconds; no pressure.
00:27:36.270
All the perfectionists are coming out!
00:27:45.060
All right, no worries. If they hit the ground, just try not to poke people's eyes out.
00:27:51.870
What we’re going to do is have this side face that side.
00:27:57.630
And you’re going to try to grab one before it hits you in the face.
00:28:03.610
Then, we’ll have people read ones that land on them.
00:28:11.500
Everybody stand up; don’t throw anything yet!
00:28:16.490
Ready? One, two... oh, we have snowballs coming too!
00:28:22.890
One, two, three! Now pick up some, look around.
00:28:30.030
There are some all over the place. If you see extra ones, give them to somebody.
00:28:36.200
Somebody got a missile? Yes!
00:28:44.030
Somebody got a snowball, but that was the latecomers!
00:28:53.430
Alright, if somebody would like to read, yes Diana’s got one.
00:28:59.790
We got a missile reader; oh nice, that’s!
00:29:06.990
It’s terrible, yeah!
00:29:11.130
What did the missile say? All right!
00:29:20.220
Well, there you go. That’s good!
00:29:26.290
Anyone else have one?
00:29:30.940
Oh, just like a free-for-all, cool! I like that!
00:29:38.000
I think there are some over there too, up in the corner. Say the shyness and self-doubt.
00:29:47.030
Nice! Anyone else?
00:29:55.090
Okay, so maybe think about having your kids get straight A’s.
00:30:01.500
Maybe unlearn that. That’s a good way to make the crowd angry.
00:30:06.370
Thanks; aggressive hashtag! Oh nice, it’s Blaine!
00:30:13.440
Point away from face how I cross-country ski!
00:30:19.930
Oh, all right, nice! Excellent job, everybody!
00:30:26.170
Great planes; nobody got injured! I’d call that perfect!
00:30:32.420
So what are some rules for getting ahead? We need to change habits, change mindsets, and bring an outsider’s perspective.
00:30:39.140
I’ve been working for a large food company up in Chicago, working on a problem around food waste.
00:30:47.220
How do we think about not wasting food? I was working with their Innovation Lab.
00:30:56.950
One day, I was walking back to the hotel and called my daughter. She asked what I was working on.
00:31:04.560
I said, 'We were talking about the problem of food waste.' She replied, 'I don’t know what that means.'
00:31:11.170
I explained that a lot of times when we eat, we throw away a lot of food. Think about Thanksgiving.
00:31:19.340
We make this huge meal, but then a lot of it doesn’t get eaten.
00:31:27.510
We spent the whole week thinking about the journey from farm to consumer and how we would make people not throw away food.
00:31:35.840
She asked me, 'You spent the whole week doing that, Mom? Why?' I thought, 'What do you mean?'
00:31:45.020
She said, 'Just make it taste like chocolate!' I realized she thought I was an idiot!
00:31:54.260
So, I went back the next day and told them the story. They found it interesting and funny.
00:32:01.370
They ended up starting a program in the Innovation Lab for kids in junior high to participate.
00:32:08.060
When they brainstorm and make ideas, they bring kids in for their child-like perspective.
00:32:18.630
Less filter than adults, thinking like a newbie.
00:32:25.780
This all came out of that conversation, which is pretty interesting and cool!
00:32:33.110
So there’s an exercise called escape thinking that’s really helpful for unlearning.
00:32:40.050
To do it, I like to start with an exercise by taking the attributes of something and limiting one thing.
00:32:46.650
That helps people think about how they could unlearn without it being massive and paralyzing.
00:32:52.660
What I’ll do is have everyone write down on a sheet of paper every attribute of a restaurant.
00:32:59.430
Then I’ll have the group remove one attribute. What if a restaurant didn’t have tables?
00:33:05.940
They start to explore what a restaurant would be like without tables.
00:33:12.310
That’s called escape thinking. You can apply the same thinking to your team.
00:33:19.850
Let’s say we have stand-ups. What if we didn’t have Slack? What would that look like?
00:33:25.300
This helps them unlearn or question something that might make it better.
00:33:32.460
You can conduct unlearning reviews.
00:33:39.340
When you're meeting with people and asking about KPIs, ask what they want to learn.
00:33:45.790
Ask them what they want to unlearn in the next 90 days. What do they need to let go of to make room for something new?
00:33:52.450
Make that a question: what do you no longer need?
00:33:58.780
You can use improv, like the games we did today!
00:34:05.320
You can do spaced numbers to show there’s empathy. It’s simple, but experiential exercises can allow so much learning.
00:34:12.250
Do it daily; it’s not a transactional activity, it’s something you must practice every day.
00:34:19.650
Unlearning organizations seek different perspectives, disrupt routines, and start with why.
00:34:26.710
They actively listen, break the rules, explore curiously, and integrate change at each level.
00:34:33.670
If you like these exercises, I’ve written a book called 'Control Shift.' It's got 50 games for 50 days.
00:34:40.250
Every page has a different exercise you can do, for your team as individuals or as an organization.
00:34:47.520
So, what are you going to unlearn first?
00:34:57.960
Remember, it's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent.
00:35:06.630
It’s the one that is the most adaptable to change.
00:35:12.700
So, DFT: don't forget to unlearn! Thank you very much!
00:35:18.200
Good job, everybody! Thanks, guys.
Explore all talks recorded at Ancient City Ruby 2019
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