Why unlearning is as important as learning
Traditional learning and development focuses on adding new knowledge and skills. But sometimes we overlook an equally important habit: leaving behind outdated beliefs, habits, and mental models that no longer serve us. Unlearning should have its own item on the 2026 L&D agenda.
Now, there is no prerequisite that you have to leave old skills behind to build new ones. Your brain is not a box where you can add or remove things on command. Let’s explore what unlearning in L&D actually entails and find out how to design learning environments that prioritize both the decline of outdated patterns and the emergence of new capabilities.
The science of unlearning and why we need to do more about it
Organizations emphasize ‘continuous learning’ through skill acquisition and development, but research shows that one of the main barriers to learning is not a lack of information, but the persistence of old mental models and habits that filter or block new input. Holding on to past beliefs essentially creates cognitive interference from entrenched cognitive biases (simply put, thought patterns). One example is confirmation bias. This will make you prefer the framework you’re used to, even if it’s no longer valid. In professional contexts, this can create barriers to organizational change, learning adoption, creative problem solving, and ultimately hinder successful skill building and innovation.
Now, a common misconception is that unlearning means deleting memory or knowledge, similar to deleting files from a computer. But cognitive science and neuroscience show that this is not how the brain works. Our neural network does not have a “reset” or “delete” button. And sometimes, despite your best efforts, old connections still remain. True, we cannot deliberately eliminate old models, but we can weaken or overshadow them by cultivating newer, stronger, and relevant pathways. That’s because of neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt in response to experience.
So, like pruning a plant to encourage new growth, let’s look at unlearning as a process of weakening synapses and strengthening alternative neural connections. It doesn’t mean those outdated mental models and frameworks are gone. They can still surface through stress and familiar cues, but they no longer primarily control your actions and decisions on your L&D journey.
Unlearning in organizational culture and L&D
Company culture shapes what is valued within the work environment, and these norms determine which mental models to strengthen and which to challenge in L&D and daily life. For example, an organizational culture that values stability and hierarchy and maintains the status quo may implicitly prevent unlearning or interpret it as dishonesty. Conversely, corporate cultures that encourage experimentation, innovation, and development are more likely to encourage forgetting, making it feel psychologically safe rather than taboo.
For learning leaders and L&D professionals, this cultural dimension means that shedding old concepts and practices is not a one-and-done process; it requires consistency and effort. First, it is much easier to form new habits than to completely unlearn old ones, so learning engagement and unlearning interventions need to go hand in hand. Learners (and unlearners) also need to feel safe that their unlearning process will not be misunderstood or criticized. Therefore, please provide a reasoned explanation as to why the old model no longer works and why you are in the process of retiring the old model.
To summarize here, when unlearning is ignored and existing skills and routines become deeply ingrained, innovation and adaptation can be undermined. Incorporating unlearning into your L&D strategy can prevent stagnation, foster internal innovation, and give your organization a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Basically, it helps in the evolution of employees and organizations. As they say, the old goes and the new comes in.
L&D practices that support forgetting
Developing metacognition
An important step in unlearning is developing metacognition, the ability to monitor, evaluate, and adjust your thinking. Unlearning means developing an awareness of how we reason, why we apply certain mental models rather than others, and how confident we should be in that application. We also need to develop the ability to recognize when our thinking is outdated, incomplete, or overly generalized. In short, engaging in metacognitive reflection can help you better spot your mistakes, recognize when your beliefs are unhelpful, and revise your beliefs in response to new evidence. It’s adaptability at its best.
experiential learning
Experiential learning is one of the most effective means of unlearning, especially when structured to highlight the limitations of existing mental models. The goal of unlearning in L&D and beyond is to build new neural pathways while simultaneously suppressing dominant neural networks associated with outdated models. Experiential learning is effective in both cases. As an active, hands-on process that learners experience and reflect on, it encourages critical thinking and questioning, updating prior knowledge rather than ignoring it. Some empirical approaches that can help corporate learners understand how outdated models lose explanatory power include simulations, hands-on experiments, and hypothesis testing.
interleave
A much-loved method in learning circles, interleaving can prove extremely useful for unlearning in L&D. Interleaving typically involves mixed practice between different subjects or problem types to promote deeper and better understanding, application, and abstraction. For unlearning purposes, interleaving can be used in new ways by intentionally interleaving old and new models in different contexts and asking learners to distinguish when each applies and when the old model fails. Moving back and forth between introducing new models and reintroducing legacy concepts at unexpected intervals forces learners to overwrite old habits with new ones, accelerating the decline of outdated habits and the development/strengthening of new ones.
Develop cognitive flexibility
Unlearning in L&D should ultimately help learners build resilience and cognitive flexibility. Nurturing these traits in learners, especially the latter, should be a top priority for those in the learning industry. Cognitive flexibility, the ability to shift attention between concepts and switch task rules and actions, has been and will continue to be invaluable to learners, especially in the face of short attention spans. These skill sets enable individuals and teams to pivot quickly, adopt new tools and frameworks, and make better decisions in chaotic situations.
conclusion
In the L&D context, unlearning helps build new capabilities for both individuals and organizations. Letting go of outdated mental structures, assumptions, and past habits opens the door to new ways of thinking and doing things. That’s what learning and development is all about. Why not try a little decluttering next year?
