Learning, Unlearning and Re-Learning Curves

4 Unlearning and re-learning techniques

This chapter is all about unlearning . . . or rather . . . learning, forgetting . . . then learning again.

If we have come to terms with the concept of learning being the net result of several different and semi-independent Cost Drivers, then we must accept also that if we remove these drivers then we stop learning, but more importantly if we remove or lose the benefits accrued by these drivers, then we effectively unlearn. For some of us, this may fall into the camp of weird theories to which Asimov may have alluded. However, the empirical evidence is irrefutable; Yelle (1979, p.322) referred to the more general case of an organisation’s apparent ability to forget what it had previously learnt.

A word ...