If you haven't done so, you've overlooked one of the most important elements necessary for your employees to learn something new. Failure to follow the unlearning process is one of the primary reasons why companies' training programmes fail.
The competitive nature of the adult brain
Have you ever watched a child learning to play a musical instrument and marvelled at the speed of their progress? Children learn much faster than adults. The reason for the gap in our learning is due to what neurologists call competitive plasticity. Simply put, the neurons needed in this case to play the piano compete to find space in an adult brain that has already been strongly developed, whereas a child has a wide range of free space awaiting further development.
If we stop using a skill or have not developed a certain area, we will not lose it; however, our brain uses this space for another activity. The skills, activities and even beliefs for which we consistently use our brains become more ingrained, making it difficult to use this space for something else. Awareness of this principle is key to the unlearning process and thus faster learning of new skills.
For the same reason, if you want your new employee training programme to succeed and take effect, it is crucial that you first understand what needs to be unlearnt.
Unlearning is harder than learning
Research has shown that unlearning is at least as difficult - perhaps more difficult - than learning something new. It also requires more energy.
When designing a training programme, it is essential you pay the same attention to it as new learning.
This is especially important when new activities require people to do similar work but in a different way, which often happens when new workflows and technologies are introduced.
Although we are talking about an unlearning process, this is not quite the case. In fact, once our brain has learnt something, it will never completely unlearn it. This is also why we tend to go back to old habits and ways of doing something when we are stressed or tired.
Unlearning involves the process of rewriting while creating the necessary connections and new ways for a new activity to become part of our long-term memory. It is similar to building new roads that would solve traffic jams in an already developed area of a city. Construction work involves resurfacing and rerouting some existing highways, while also adding new extensions to keep the traffic moving.
Three things are needed to unlearn and free up space for new learning:
- Recognise and plan lessons before you start learning. For example, include a "pre-study period" in your training programme that will allow employees to be introduced to the new environment and context before the actual training begins.
- Create a safe learning space. David Rock, author of "Your Brain at Work," says that when training is forced, it becomes a threat. Learning that occurs when we feel threatened will not be stored in the long-term memory and, once the threat is over, we will return to the old behaviour. The key to incorporating new learning is to reduce anxiety. We need to believe in our own ability to learn a new activity, plus time to focus on actually learning it.
- Strengthen new skills before they become normal. People need time to store new knowledge or skills, so that there is little risk of a return to the old ways. One way to avoid the problem is a shift in thinking to regard training as a process rather than a result. This process begins with preparation (as already indicated), then training (skills development) and the subsequent post-training support period.
Training is an important part of any effort for organisational change. Taking the learning process into account when designing the programme ensures new skills and activities really will be maintained.
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