Unlearning the Old

In a previous MinSight we discussed how the Profile enables employees to accept thinking style differences in order to change how they think and problem solve together to continually achieve innovative results. Employees have to unlearn some of the old ways of thinking and learn new ways to replace them.

However, unlearning is easier said than done as old habits tend to stick hard. Many people come to work with the mindset of “I just want to do my job”and having to change produces discomfort. 

A great example of unlearning occurred in the 18th century. Scientists were comfortable with the explanation of why some things burned (combustion) and others did not. Their answer was phlogiston: Some materials, like wood, contained lots of phlogiston and others, like metal, did not. A scientist named Lavoisier wanted to find out how much phlogiston there was in magnesium, an element that he was studying. He took some magnesium, weighed it, and put it in a test tube. He lit the magnesium on fire. According to phlogiston theory, after the magnesium was burned, the remainder should have weighed less than the original because the phlogiston would have been lost. To his surprise it actually weighed more. He then created a new theory: That oxygen in the air combined with magnesium made a new heavier compound called magnesium oxide. Lavoisier called why things burned oxidation, and scientists had to unlearn the old phlogiston theory and learn the new oxidation theory which has been taught in schools from then on.

Someday, scientists may discover a better theory for oxidation and we would have to unlearn the old way and learn the new.