The following excerpt is transcribed from The Future Of Now event that took place on 14 April 2022.
 

Jessie Shternshus

When Jessie started Improv Effect in 2007, her goal was to help businesses achieve more and unlock their potential through communication skills training, teamwork, and creative problem solving. 

Jessie has been a key player in internal training and transformations for global companies such as The UN, Netflix, Johnson & Johnson, Getty Images, CapitalOne, and many more. She is the co-author of CTRLShift 50 Games for 50 *** Days Like Today and No More Meetings!

 

Key points

• Unlearning is more than recognising that something is no longer useful to you, it’s about all the steps you take next
• Stop leaning on things out of habit!

 

Unlearning is a process of identification, elimination, and improvement

When we learn we are adding something new to what we already know – whether this is a new skill, fact, or concept. Unlearning is quite literally the opposite – by stepping outside of the mental model and assessing what we can deduct from our collective knowledge in order to improve the overall situation. 

By removing something false or outdated you automatically improve your system. Think of it like this – when your software needs a critical update you don’t install the updated software on top of the existing one – you replace it! Keeping those old system files hanging around in archives just slows everything down and prevents using the system at full capacity.

 

Slow Down and Reframe: identify what isn’t working

How do you identify what doesn’t serve you anymore?  By asking. 

Look at your life or your company and find things that you are hanging on to out of habit. Not from a place of judgement or justification – just look at the things that you used to use a lot but don’t anymore. For Example: Maybe you used to have enough employees cycling to work that bike storage and end of trip facilities made perfect sense – but no one has used it for months. Or maybe you love your blog but you haven’t updated it in ages and now you mostly feel guilty about not doing enough.

Reframing is  another way of looking at the situation. A classic joke that perfectly illustrates the skill of reframed thinking is the old roadworks sign reading: Warning, Umbrella Thieves Ahead.

Through practicing looking at things outside of the box, you’re more able to find new solutions to old problems. The key thing is to challenge what you’re seeing and dump your assumptions – solutions aren’t always tough it out or quit! 

“Once we’ve found our conditioned way of doing something, maybe we’re rewarded for it, or maybe it’s even tied up in our identity. Then letting that go? Trying something new? It can be extremely painful. Take small simple steps to avoid that paralysis.” – Jessie Shternshus

 

Eliminate what no longer serves you

The neural pathways in our brain take time to form, which is why changing them can feel like it takes forever. With small changes made incrementally, we can affect massive change in the long run. So the answer isn’t, “change every aspect all at once!”, it’s more gradual and methodical than that. Identifying the big and small things that no longer make your life easier or better and altering that. 

Perhaps you could change your blog’s posting schedule to something less demanding, hire a writer to update it, or maybe if it doesn’t benefit you anymore –  let it go and stop feeling guilty about it.

 

Improve your systems, outlook, and life with things that do serve you

These things worked for you once so it’s natural to want to hang on to them, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be replaced with something that serves you now. 

Technology has proven to be a real microcosm of what happens when you don’t improve your systems. Companies who refused to relinquish their fax machines simply stopped getting orders, manufacturing machines controlled via hardline links with top of the line (in the 1990’s) laptops are one power outage away from shutting down production for weeks. 

When you focus too hard on protecting what you’ve got – whether that’s a hardline into your machinery or in person meetings – you can find yourself not progressing beyond what you’re protecting. Unlearning the habits, processes, and logic you’ve come to rely on is hard – but every time it’s an opportunity to learn, progress, and innovate. 
 

How to use the Learning Canvas Framework Jessie Created

You can use these techniques and concepts to assess and improve your own business practices or personal life – simply by asking yourself the same questions that The Improv Effect puts to teams when they embark on a change process. 

There are three little steps, and three big ones. 

1. Ask yourself how things used to be. 
2. Ask why it worked back then. 
3. Ask what changed. 

Do these three things and you’ll find yourself at the first big step:

1. What you need to unlearn to move forward.
2. Look forward to what comes after unlearning that limiting belief. 
3. Reflect on why you’re making this change, unlearning these things, and striving towards that specific goal. 

Because knowing where you came from, identifying what serves you and what didn’t, and having a tangible understanding of that process is what will give you the confidence and the drive to embark on a journey of change.

What have been your biggest fears when you take organisations through such a radical way of looking at the world – especially with your use of play and improv in sessions?

Jessie: When companies don’t think of play as something useful, they might have these preconceived ideas that play is for the playground and not for work they don’t see how it helps break down walls, helps us innovate, helps us to be vulnerable but also feel safe when it’s done in the right way. So my fear is not giving them the chance to experience what it can do.

Are there tools or strategies that you use to lead against the naysayers?

Jessie: The best thing to do is to know your audience and have empathy for why they might be scared of doing something. Pacing is important – you don’t want to overwhelm people from the beginning. By starting off small and building, you can alleviate the fear of having to “Improvise” and let them ease into using improv as a tool.

What would be some of the biggest mistakes you’ve observed?

Jessie: Going all in at once – implementing some huge organisational change and announcing this grand change without the unlearning process first. This kind of overzealous action-taking leaves out the empathy for the people who will be living the change every day in the organisation which is the process of letting go of the learned habit.

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About The Future Of Now series

Our goal at More Space For Light with The Future of Now (FON) series is to build a community of like-minded passionate professionals. We intend to bring together like-minded professionals to share, inspire, and explore new opportunities for growth. So you can discover new ways of working to bring back into your organisation.

 

More about the organisations connected to this event

• morespaceforlight.com.au – A strategy and innovation consultancy specialising in both in-person and/or remote workshops, design programs and Design Sprints.
• MURAL.CO – a remote collaboration whiteboard. With this platform you will supercharge your remote and in-person meetings and workshops.
• Butter.us – an all-in-one remote workshop tool designed to help put your energy back into facilitating.
• hacker.exchange – a global education company that is supercharging the next generation of startups & leaders.