#ThinkfullyHabit: Unlearn old limits
Growth isn’t just a matter of learning new things, but also unlearning old limits. When faced with a challenge, actively consider what previous ideas may be getting in the way of thinking about your new situation differently.
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
WHY?
In a world of constant change and disruption, we risk being left behind if we’re held back or even blinded by old ideas that have become obsolete. A helpful way to unlearn old limits is by disrupting yourself first.
Psychologist Gary Klein devised the ‘pre-mortem’ technique as a way to stop fearing failure and instead focus on how we can prevent it from happening – which Nobel-winning Daniel Kahneman and author of Fast and Slow Thinking describes as his favourite method for making better decisions*. The pre-mortem method is based on “prospective hindsight”, which involves imagining a spectacular failure has already occurred. Research has revealed that by identifying risks from the outset this can increases the ability to correctly identify reasons for future outcomes by 30% **.
“Unlike a typical critiquing session, in which project team members are asked what might go wrong, the pre-mortem operates on the assumption that the “patient” has died, and so asks what did go wrong. The team members’ task is to generate plausible reasons for the project’s failure.”
Next time your starting a new project with your team, try out the pre-mortem method with these few simple steps;
Imagine the worst. Kick off by imagining the project has been a complete disaster.
What happened? Generate all the possible reasons that could have caused the failure.
Talk. Collectively discuss all the potential causes. Are there any patterns emerging?
Let’s fix it. Now discuss all the preventative solutions you could put in place to avert the causes from happening.
As Klein states, during this exercise “the whole dynamic changes from trying to avoid anything that might disrupt harmony to trying to surface potential problems”.
By focusing on hypothetical failure, as opposed to success, it can help to identify potential blind spots and air issues that we’re often unwilling to confront.