Most people know how to learn a new skill they've never done before, so long as they're motivated and receptive to the idea. Did you ever stop to think about how hard it is to unlearn something? Unlearning old skills requires that you re-train yourself, get rid of old habits, and embrace something new as a business professional.
Unlearning old skills takes a mental model that you may not realize you need to accomplish a particular goal at the office, especially if you're dealing with new technology that disrupts entire industries. For example, tech firms such as Google and Facebook rely on removing limits to profitability by increasing customers exponentially. In the case of Facebook, it's not about making money from ads delivered to one person. It's about making money from one person's friends, and the friends of those friends, and the friends of the friends of the friends, and so on throughout a network.
This networked approach of suppliers, customers and partners illustrates unlearning old skills from previous moneymaking models that were more linear. Companies used to have one supplier to make one set of products to sell to one kind of customer. In the global economy, that model simply doesn't work. Although specialization is important to start, diversification along every step of the business model leads to success.
The Internet and Mobile
The internet and mobile technology changed the way intelligent companies market their products and services. Rather than market one type of item to a specific set of consumers, the global reach of your website means you can create customer personas. Instead of fostering individual relationships, you find customers with a shared purpose who need your products or services. Once you bring these customers into the fold, you deliver personalized customer service.
Because you can deliver specific ads to large groups of people through social media, apps and your company's website, unlearning old skills includes getting to know the latest programming techniques, mobile technology and future trends. What you know about tech now may become obsolete in 10 years, but you have to start somewhere if you want to remain competitive. Knowing some tech skills gives you the basis to expand your knowledge base later.
Three-Part Unlearning
Unlearning old skills entails three steps. First, you have to recognize that your old mental model may no longer work within your industry. Then you must find the correct model of thinking that works best for your firm's goals. After that, you need to retrain your mind to develop new habits. For example, instead of seeing social media as sending one message to many people, you can take advantage of these platforms to send many messages to many people all at once. That change in attitude may seem small, but recognizing that certain technologies remove your firm's limits can have a lasting impact on your revenue model.
Unlearning old skills gets easier once you figure out the process a few times because your mind becomes used to new possibilities. This is a good thing because global commerce can change very quickly, and you must adapt to the changes or perish.
Photo courtesy of Kory Westerhold at Flickr.com
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