Learn To Unlearn

Be Brilliant

Subject matter expertise has its perks. Being an expert on any field requires deep learning as well as deliberate practice over years and years. The more professional experience you gain the more you'll swap a minimum principle mindset ('What do I need to do to achieve XY?') for a maximum principle ('How much can I possibly achieve with my available resources?'). When I started as a consultant I had a very basic and fragmented knowledge in most of the technical aspects in my subject matter. At the time I was already a certified and experienced supply chain management expert with some merits. However, as the branch I had worked in (military and defence) neither used the latest technology nor had a business model that promoted short development or change cycles in leadership or management, I did not feel 100% competitive. Therefore I faced some serious challenges when I started my career in the private sector.  At the time when I joined a consulting company I was in my early thirties, which meant no time was granted for special training. Therefore I applied a simple but effective strategy in order to fill my knowledge gap to my peers as quickly as possible: 

1. Read up
2. Offer to help out whenever an opportunity emerges
3. Collect feedback on your work
4. Adapt
5. Repeat

This worked perfectly. A temporary ramp down of my sports activities made me an instant time millionaire. All those tons of lonely nights in shiny or shitty hotel rooms did not do any harm either. I had my unfair advantage from day one and was all fired up to invest in the build up of another ninja skill: an expertise too great to be ignored.

What Has Been Learned Can Be Unlearned

Despite all the effort that my new superpower would cost me, the hardest part was not the learning bit but the 'unlearning' part. Some strategies that had previously proved successful in the military were just not adequate in the private sector. Sometimes strategies -especially management and leadership strategies- in the public and the private sector are outright contradictory. Take failure culture: in the military -especially with the German Air Force- you often have a zero failure tolerance. If you have ever had the privilege to witness a Commodore* completely lose his shit and nuke his staff into orbit because one of his jets is not combat ready, you'll have a picture to remember for lifetime. If not: Just imagine David Banner turning into the Hulk and multiply this by at least 10. 

But in the private sector we have been -and still are- living in a tremendous revolution. We have seen the rise of small start-ups turn into global behemoths. Most successful companies in the private sector have developed an entirely new and to date unparalleled failure culture in order to tackle the challenges of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA-world). The infamous motto of amazon is 'Every day is day one'. Another famous quip in the start-up scene is 'Fail fast and move on' or 'Make mistakes faster' or 'You learn to walk by doing and falling over'.

On realizing the need to regularly ask myself if my knowledge is still applicable and effective for the challenges at hand, I have gained some valuable insights. The most essential of which is: Always be ready to accept the occasional necessity to unlearn what you have learned. 

Key Takeaways

• Learn and adapt fast, even if you risk to make mistakes along the way
• Challenge the status quo (especially your own knowledge about the status quo)
• Be open to unlearn what you have learned
• Ask questions, even if they seem dumb
• Have the courage to be the Chief Question Officer (i.e. the dumbest person in the room)

*Commanding officer of an airborne unit