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Unlearning isn’t forgetting; it’s clearing old habits to make room for smarter ones.
Fifty years ago, Alvin Toffler made an unnerving prediction. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Add AI to the equation. A seismic upheaval in how we work is changing how we think. Call it (Toffler) x 10.
Calculators dulled our mental math. GPS eroded our sense of direction. Spellcheck weakened our spelling.
Now, AI summarizes documents we don’t want to read, writes emails we don’t want to write, and finds answers we don’t want to search for.
Outsourcing our thinking dulls the mind. If we let it.
As AI takes up the routine, it leaves us standing with Toffler’s challenge: learning, unlearning, and relearning.
Or at least, we were. That’s the story I am sticking to.
In 1968, NASA commissioned a study to find highly creative engineers and scientists. Researchers George Land and Beth Jarman tested for what they called divergent thinking—the ability to generate multiple, novel solutions to a problem.
When NASA engineers took the test, only a small fraction hit the “creative genius” level. But when 5-year-olds took it, 98% did. According to Land, “non-creative behavior is learned.”
We don’t lack creativity. We’ve layered over it with habits that get in the way.
To reclaim our creative genius, we have to unlearn these habits.
And before we do that, we must burst through some barriers:
Functional fixedness, the blinkers that prevent us seeing possibilities. If we have a hammer, we see nails everywhere. It’s the false confidence that we already know best.
Stuck thinking where how we react to problems follows a familiar groove. It’s not just the comfort with the familiar; it's discomfort with new ways of thinking.
We cling to opinion over evidence. Data doesn’t move people if it flies in the face of deeply held beliefs. We stick with old, familiar ideas, even when the facts should move us on.
Emotional attachment looms large. Our past successes and pride shapes who we are. Which makes letting go hard.
A culture of fear. Where it isn’t safe to make mistakes, or ask dumb questions, or it’s frowned upon to pick at sacred cows. Where failure is punished (or even perceived as such), people stay frozen.
Blind spots abound. You may not be familiar with the Johari Window, but you live in one. There are things others see (the known unknowns) and that no one sees (the unknown unknowns). The trouble is, blind spots stay blind, unless we’re willing to listen, look harder, and rethink.
Unlearning is hard because our brains are built to repeat, not rethink. We have to break habits and overcome defaults: the pull of the familiar, the comfort of being right, and the instinct to protect what worked before.
Unlearning takes six moves:
#1. Spot what’s stuck.
#2. Loosen your grip.
#3. Dig before you discard.
#4. Shift the payoff.
#5. Replace the habit.
#6. Unlearn together.
You can’t fix what you can’t see.
Once we’ve built habits—automated behaviors and ways of thinking—we stop questioning them. They dissolve into the background.
Look for friction that’s no longer noticed: clunky processes, functional silos, outdated KPIs, and reports no-one reads any more. Pay attention to new team members and outsiders with different perspectives.
Ask yourself:
What am I doing because it used to work? And,
What assumptions no longer hold true?
At AWS, teams use “Working Backwards” documents—starting with the ideal customer outcome and tracing backward to find friction. If it doesn’t serve the user, it’s up for debate.
At Spotify, retrospectives are a habit—not just in product teams, but across functions. Spotting what’s stuck is built into how they work.
At Stripe, internal postmortems are used to surface friction—without blame. It’s a structured way to find what’s broken before it slows work again.
You can start unlearning now.
Ask the team, “What are we doing that no longer makes sense?”
Write it down. Look for patterns, then act on them.
Holding on is what’s holding you back.
It’s the monkey jar principle. A monkey reaches into a jar to grab a piece of fruit... but can’t pull its hand out while still holding it. The monkey stays trapped, not because it’s tied down—but because it won’t let go.
We do the same thing. We hold onto old routines because they once brought success and status. We protect them. Defend them. Wrap our identity in them. Even when they no longer serve us.
Look for signs of grip: resistance to change that’s a pit in your stomach. Defensiveness that tightens your jaw. Perfectionism covering up anxiety.
Ask yourself:
What am I afraid to let go of—and why?
What would I stop doing if I didn’t have to protect [this]?
At AWS, writing a future press release forces teams to let go of today’s assumptions and imagine the product from a world that doesn’t exist yet. It creates a safe distance from the present and space to let go.
Spotify uses lightweight launch checklists that emphasize learning over perfection. Teams are encouraged to ship early, with known gaps, as long as there's a feedback loop in place. The focus is on momentum, not getting it perfect the first time.
At Stripe, new hires are invited to question—and even rewrite—their onboarding docs, including those written by their managers. It sends a clear message: what worked before isn’t sacred. Letting go is part of learning.
Loosen your grip.
Ask your team: “What are we holding onto that helped us then, but hurts us now?”
Say it out loud and let go together.
Unlearning isn’t a conflagration. It’s an excavation.
We don’t need to burn everything down.
Some ways of working served us well. Some still do. The danger is in assuming all legacy is dead weight or that every new idea is better by default.
Unlearning means sorting the gold from the gravel. Finding what needs to change and what can stay the same.
Clean-sheetism is great. For brainstorming. But it can lead to big swings, total resets, and a tendency to kill before we understand. At some point, it is met with resistance, and teams will throw out the old playbook only to recreate it under a new name.
Ask yourself:
Which part of this actually worked?
What ‘soft systems’ (relationships, rituals, norms) should stay?
What would we keep if we were starting from scratch?
At AWS, before building anything new, teams start with a press release and FAQ—then dig into existing workflows, metrics, and habits that might conflict with that future state. It’s not about throwing everything out—it’s about aligning what already exists with what customers actually need.
Spotify teams run “Start / Stop / Keep” sessions in retrospectives—not everything old gets tossed. Some rituals evolve. Some are revived, if they still serve the team.
Stripe teams regularly audit internal tools and processes before replacing them. Engineers are expected to ask: “Is the pain here in the tool—or how we’re using it?” Often, it’s not a rebuild that’s needed, just a rethink.
Find what matters and toss the rest.
Before you change something, stop and ask: “What are we trying to fix — and do we understand it well enough to move on?”
Don’t discard. Dig.
Unlearning is unnatural. It feels like failure.
Letting go of what once worked can feel like admitting you were wrong. Setting aside a routine, a system, a process—even a mindset—feels like a betrayal of what made you successful in the first place.
That's why we cling to the past.
To change the context, change the reward—from old to new:
These signals are sticky. They tell people what’s really valued—and what’s not.
Ask yourself:
What are we actually rewarding?
What behavior gets recognition, but might be holding us back?
What would we reward in a company that celebrates speed, learning, and impact?
Amazon rewards teams for spotting flawed assumptions early, not just for what ships. Failure isn’t punished; false certainty is.
At Spotify, speed of learning matters more than polish. Leaders praise fast feedback loops and smart pivots—momentum beats mastery.
At Stripe, senior leaders make a point of sharing what they’ve changed their minds about. That signals unlearning as strength, not loss.
Reward differently.
Shine a light on someone who stopped doing something that no longer worked and made space for something better.
Change what you celebrate.
Stopping isn’t enough. You have to swap it for something better.
Unlearning leaves a gap. A vacuum. A pause between what you used to do and what you’ll do next.
If you don’t fill that gap, the old habit creeps back in. That’s how defaults survive—not because they’re strong, but because they’re familiar.
Old habits fade when they’re overwritten, not just erased. You introduce a new tool, but no new ritual. You reorganize, but the same decisions happen in the same rooms. You remove a process, but nothing takes its place, so people snap back to what they know.
Ask yourself:
What will we do instead?
Does the replacement make the new habit easier, faster, clearer than the old one?
Have we practiced the new pattern enough for it to stick?
Amazon replaced traditional planning cycles with PR/FAQ—a new rhythm that shifts focus from timelines to customer clarity.
When Spotify reshapes teams, they don’t just retire roles—they install lightweight rituals like standups, demos, and retros. Process is replaced with presence.
Stripe simplifies by replacing, not just removing. When they sunset a tool or process, they launch a better default: something faster, lighter, and easier to adopt.
Stop. Then start something better.
When you stop something, pair it with a new behavior, tool, or trigger. Every “no more of this” needs a “from now on, we do that.”
Don’t just delete—replace.
Unlearning needs air cover.
A signal that it’s safe to question. That letting go isn’t failure — it’s expected. That breaking old patterns is a team sport. It’s safer to go together than to go alone.
If you’re going it alone:
You raise a concern, and no one touches it.
You try something new—and get quietly corrected.
Everyone agrees in the meeting, then questions it after the fact.
That’s not a culture of learning or unlearning. It’s a culture of compliance.
Ask yourself:
Who’s modeling unlearning here?
Do we make it safe to challenge—or do we shut it down?
Do we have a shared language for change?
Amazon builds unlearning into its narrative culture. Teams write six-page memos to challenge assumptions, test logic, and expose outdated thinking. The goal isn’t agreement—it’s rigorous debate.
At Spotify, retros aren’t just for postmortems—they’re for letting go. Teams name the habits, processes, or mindsets that no longer fit, and decide—together—what to leave behind.
Stripe leaders model unlearning by naming what they’ve changed their minds about—in meetings, docs, and Q&As. Change isn’t whispered; it’s shared out loud.
Start unlearning together.
Add one question to your next team review:
“What should we unlearn?”
Gavin McMahon is a founder and Chief Content Officer for fassforward consulting group. He leads Learning Design and Product development across fassforward’s range of services. This crosses diverse topics, including Leadership, Culture, Decision-making, Information design, Storytelling, and Customer Experience. He is also a contributor to Forbes Business Council.
Eugene Yoon is a graphic designer and illustrator at fassforward. She is a crafter of Visual Logic. Eugene is multifaceted and works on various types of projects, including but not limited to product design, UX and web design, data visualization, print design, advertising, and presentation design.
