Did you know forgetting is part of sustainable learning?

An organisation learns off the back of its people learning. We learn reactively every day from things we see, hear and experience. We also learn proactively, we plan how we learn, as an organisation and as individuals. To learn in a sustainable way, we need to not only know what we need to learn, but also what we should be willing to forget. We do not have to invest in forgetting, it will happen automatically.

Moving up in an organisation allows us to learn more and new things. This can only happen effectively if we are willing to forget things we no longer need. Moving to a new level, requires new knowledge, competencies and skills.

Forgetting – or unlearning – appears to be one of the main issues we encounter in our organisations. Leaders keeping abreast – and more importantly, investing time and effort in keeping abreast – with knowledge, skills and competencies they no longer need. They still take lower level skills and knowledge to a level where it will have a disempowering effect. They create an obstacle for themselves and disempower the people they lead, they people who should really hold these competencies and knowledge.

Lighten your load, drop what you no longer need. Your unlearning or forgetting allows others to learn and make a difference at the appropriate level. Trust yourself to trust your people.