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When corporate folks throw around words like unlearning, some of us might wonder: Is unlearning a word? In short, yes. Grammarly also didn’t flag it as not being one. So there’s that, but what’s most important is how we might actually use the strategy of unlearning something to make space for something new.
What is unlearning?
The unlearning meaning is simple and kind of self-explanatory, perhaps. It is the strategy of stopping doing something you are doing. It’s getting rid of an outdated workflow or cutting an inefficient tactic. Sometimes, it’s a bad habit, too. Let’s unlearn this accidental workflow or outdated status quo.
Once you’ve identified the task or workflow, it’s time to stop doing it. That includes unlearning the skill to some degree. That doesn’t mean we have to completely forget about it or all of its pieces. But it means that we stop doing a particular thing.
For example, way back when I printed out scripts to edit content, that was the accepted workflow. Some even claim it’s easier to see mistakes on paper. Maybe it is, or maybe it isn’t. Now, I prefer to use Claude for some assistance, write in WordPress and then spellcheck with Grammarly.
Anyway, it used to be a common tactic, but with teams working in a distributed manner and the web being a central place to publish, editing on paper doesn’t make nearly as much sense as it used to. Plus, it takes so much longer. Who has the time?
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To get this unlearning going, I had to unlearn the need to want to edit on paper. Once I got that in my head, I was able to learn how to edit in Word and turn on tracked changes when editing other people’s content. Later, editing moved to Google Docs, where multiple people could edit together. Now, some teams edit directly in the CMS. And let’s not forget the assist we can get from AI – but never from scratch, please. Give it some source content.
How do we even know what we should be unlearning?
This can indeed be hard to recognize when teams have existed in the same format and makeup for a long time. If fresh thoughts are never brought in, it is hard to even know what needs to be unlearned.
And some people fight change, which could be another barrier to overcome.
Certainly, on the flip side, some companies like the stability or loyalty of employees who stick around forever. That’s great, but it can also present a problem when those long-term employees still use the exact workflow that they used when they started 10 years ago. And, more importantly, are unwilling to change. Things change.
There are ways to understand what needs to be updated in any scenario:
- Rotate people around projects and tasks. That can give you a chance to spot ineffectiveness.
- Bring in new roles that bring in employees who have varied experiences that the current team does not have.
- Training and virtual conferences can also be helpful, but keep in mind that you’ll still have to implement ideas.
- Partner with strategic consultants that can help you unlearn the right things.
Of course, hiring consultants can be harder than it sounds. Some try to tell you everything needs to be changed and that they are the only ones who can help you get there—unlikely. Others may run into too many barriers with internal politics.
Whatever route you go, make sure you give the change management leader enough freedom and authority to actually make positive changes.
But unlearning is becoming more important, especially now in the era of artificial intelligence, which has opened up new possibilities of content creation, and planning.
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Isn’t it hard to unlearn things we’ve done for a while?
I think so, and people seem to have the tendency to fall back into their default. That’s why finding pain points or obvious improvements can be helpful. If a change is making an employee’s life easier, they are much more likely to do it.
Technology is one area where we constantly have to learn and unlearn things. But keep in mind that technology is not the end-all.
And hardly any technology solution is perfect to begin with so there are still things to work around.
We certainly want to learn specific tasks and tools, and those can range from:
- Email marketing automation
- Social media automation
- CRMs
- Content production tools
I’m a proponent of lifelong learning, and it also helps to be strategic about what we are actually learning.
How to learn the right things for the future
As things are constantly changing and things are changing super fast, it’s always good to future-proof our own careers. As much as that is even possible.
So what does that even mean to future-proof your career?
It means that we pick a skill or profession that can easily or somewhat easily adjust with the changing times.
For example:
- I went to school to study journalism and then worked as a print journalist.
- Then I took the storytelling skill set to bank training. I learned video production here.
- Then, I started my own journalistic venture and learned how to publish on the web and penetrate a market.
- Then, I helped nonprofits tell better stories.
- The next move had me going into healthcare storytelling.
- And Software as a Service.
- I moved back into publishing and implementation
- For the last several years, I’ve been doing marketing for firms in the market research space.
While it certainly is super helpful to understand an industry, my skill of sharing brand stories transfers.
The areas I’ve worked in are related and different at the same time.
The skills that carry through are:
- Storytelling
- Communications across channels – writing, audio, video, and also internal and external
- Ability to change
- Coachability (I debate like I’m right and listen like I’m wrong)
- Competitiveness – is that content performing, yet?
- Ability to live in a data-driven culture of several maturity levels
Some of the jobs I’ve done and the jobs of the people I’ve worked with didn’t even exist when I went to college or when I went through high school.
Examples:
- App developer
- Content marketer (in today’s sense)
- Who knew what content engagement was in 1999?
- Conversion-centric writers
- Social media marketer
- Podcaster
Roles change all the time. The late Steve Buttry blogged about how the role of editor changed at The Gazette, where I implemented topical websites in the 2010s. Certainly, the way content is created has evolved as well. Today, we can:
- voice dictate articles
- do podcasts
- shoot virtual reality video
- work on iPads
- Hello, AI!
- And more
The way to go with the flow is to figure out how your core strengths and interests align with the present and the future.
Have a core skill that transfers:
Writing, design, change management are examples. Some of the basics will always matter and will be needed.
Then, keep evolving that skill. The writing I do today is very different from the writing I did in the 2000s. It’s more focused on keyword research, web readability—or skim ability—and other ways to drive content performance.
Then there are what some may call soft skills that are also important:
- Be collaborative
- Always learn – even when you think you know
- Be nice
- Own without being overly protective
- Communicate well
- Don’t be married to the current state or product
- Or even the next stage
Let’s take printed newspapers. I loved them. Grew up with them. I wrote for them. Loved seeing my byline on the front page.
I had four papers delivered to my home at some point.
Then things changed. Digital journalism started up, and I learned that.
It’s not that I don’t consume news today! I consume more than ever before and definitely when compared to the print era.
In the print era, I read the news once in the morning.
Now, I read it constantly.
- As I roll out of bed on my phone.
- Through alerts
- On Flipboard, Apple News, the web. The list goes on.
I’m committed to the craft of business storytelling, and other relevant content marketing in a channel-agnostic way. Whatever channel works, use that. Life and business evolve, and I try to stay relevant by evolving with them.
To achieve those goals, learning and unlearning help us stay relevant. So when some wonder is unlearning a word? The answer is yes it is and knowing how to unlearn and life-long learn are essential skills.