I think unlearning is also important when it comes to ideas about ourselves or others or about how the world works that are created by erroneous beliefs which were inspired by powerful (probably mostly negative) experiences or through interacting with certain individuals whose opinions we respected for whatever reason.

But of course you have to become aware of what it is you need to unlearn first…

Karin

PS. I am your long lost coaching pupil Ricky Brandon. Long time no see but I love reading your newsletters. This one just really stuck with me. Thanks.

Broadly speaking there are two parts of the brain: working memory and hardwiring/long-term memory: the conscious mind versus the unconscious mind.

Working memory doesn’t really hold very much; in fact only about 7 items at any one time. Hardwiring/long-term memory holds everything we actually know which basically means anything that you don’t need to think about anymore.

Our brains are designed to push things down into our hardwiring/long-term memory to keep our working memory fresh.

Think about the learning journey – taking on new learning is tiring and hard work and causes stress. Creating new wiring takes up a lot of effort and resources – literally. Once we have learned something however (hard wiring) we don’t have to actively think about it anymore and it becomes easy.

The information stored in hardwiring/long-term memory becomes the basis for how we view the world and create new learning. We perceive the world around us based on our own unique experiences and what bits of information we have stored in our brains from these past experiences. Thus our reality is our interpretation of the world based on the way our brains are wired.

It’s practically impossible to deconstruct our wiring
It doesn’t take long to hardwire things – anything we think about several times over makes many connections in the brain thus getting hard wired.

It’s an attention economy in the brain. Anything we give focus to can become hardwired (remember the brain works hard to get things out of short term memory and into long term memory – it uses less resources this way!).

The more we focus on a given connection, the more we deepen that connection. In fact what happens when we try to get rid of some wiring is that we actually think about it even more thereby making it even stronger.

It’s almost impossible to get rid of old wiring just by thinking about it! For example, if you are told not to think about smoking, you immediately think about smoking. The more you try not to think about smoking the more our brains will tend to focus on smoking. This increased focus tends to deepen the wiring even further rather than erase it.
Numerous studies have shown that the ability to effectively handle change is a key predictor for success. However, the fact is, our brains are hard-wired to resist change. When we encounter something new, a whole set of automatic responses take over the brain and the body, often interfering with our ability to respond optimally. Break-through research shows that we can “re-wire” our brains to make changes, throughout the human life span and at any age. You can“out-smart” your brain when it comes to handling change..

It’s easy to create new wiring
Luckily however it’s almost effortless to create new wiring – it’s what our brains are designed to do. We are able to reconcile impasses by creating new maps. This is what happens in the moment you have an insight.

As long as we are given the opportunity and encouragement to reflect, we create hard wiring.

Bringing in a new wiring doesn’t get rid of the old wiring. It’s still there – it’s just not being used so much. The phrase ‘use it or lose it’ is very relevant here. By using the old wiring less it becomes weaker and less able to guide our perceptions/thinking, whereas the new wiring becomes stronger and takes priority over the old wiring.

Until very recently, it was widely believed that the human brain is hard-wired in childhood and determined largely by genetics. Not so. Current scientific research demonstrates that the brain is capable of growth throughout our lifetime and that while neural connections can disintegrate through lack of use, new connections can also be created. This ability to re-wire the brain is known as neuroplasticity.

Think of our person wanting to stop smoking – thinking about why you smoke just increases the hard wiring for smoking; thinking about what else you could do at the moment of wanting to smoke creates new wiring. We create millions of maps every second – with so much going on inside each person’s brain, it behoves us to make it easier for each other and keep things simple. We love making connections – we often feel energised when we make connections. It feels good to make connections and have everything fit into our mental maps.

No longer must we believe that our behavior is pre-determined. If such behavior is changeable, then we can change it. It is a liberating idea.Understanding your hard-wiring and how to work with it to fully realize your potential

Dean

It would be very interesting to see a formal application of the ‘unlearning’ process built into a training program on a large scale to evaluate and observe how it works.

Trying to unstick one’s self or one’s employer to facilitate unlearning can be incredible difficult, especially without a clear vision of desired results, support for change, and a clear and vivid vision of how good the picture will be after the change. Most large, top-down bureaucracies need a sense of urgency before things really change (e.g. Ford).

Would I want an ‘unlearning’ higher institute? I’ll have to reflect on
that. It requires a paradigm shift in how we view institutes. Perhaps
it is more of a cafe style approach to bringing people together
(virtually or in person) to co-create an event that supports one’s
ability to ‘let go’ and be.

Now I’m sounding flakey. But I enjoy your approach and look forward to
how it unfolds.

Here’s a quote that seems to touch on the unlearning aspect of learning.

“You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing
to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the
whole world opens up to you.”
- Barbara Sher