Everyone tells you to keep learning.
The more important skill is knowing what to unlearn.
And this has never been more relevant.
The pace of change was already accelerating.
AI has pushed it even faster.
Learning something new does not automatically change how you operate.
You can learn a better way to lead and still revert to control under pressure.
You can learn a new tool and still use it inside an old way of working.
So how do you get better at unlearning?
1. Question identity statements
Pay attention when you hear yourself saying:
“I’m the expert.”
“I’m not technical.”
“I'm successful because I...”
Identity is powerful because we do not experience it as an assumption.
We experience it as who we are.
But sometimes the hardest thing to unlearn is the story you have built about yourself.
2. Ask questions like a beginner
Expertise helps you recognize patterns.
But it can also make you stop asking basic questions.
Ask:
“If I were seeing this situation for the first time, what would I ask first?”
3. Catch yourself before you start solutioning
Notice the moment you reach for the familiar technique, framework, or tool.
That is your instinct taking over.
A visual cue can help interrupt it.
A sticky note. A prompt on your screen. One word: “Pause.”
Then ask:
“Is this the best way to solve the problem, or am I just reaching for the solution I already know?”
4. Work with people who see the problem differently
Unlearning is difficult when everyone around you shares the same assumptions.
Work with people from different functions, backgrounds, generations, or ways of working.
Then ask:
"What are they seeing that I’m not?”
5. Challenge inherited language and default ways of working
Listen for phrases like:
“Best practice.”
“That’s the standard.”
“We’ve always done it that way.”
Those phrases hide assumptions we have stopped examining.
6. Notice when you say “that won’t work”
Sometimes that reaction is good judgment.
More often than not it is an old mental model protecting itself.
Before dismissing the idea, ask:
“What would have to be true for this to work?”
You may still reject it.
But now you are examining the assumption rather than reacting to it.
The people who adapt fastest are not the ones who just learn the most.
They are the ones who unlearn, relearn and apply over and over again.
What is something you unlearned recently?