Organizational Unlearning

Deliberately discarding knowledge, routines and beliefs that no longer fit. Bo Hedberg (1981) coined it: knowledge goes obsolete as reality changes, so understanding means throwing old knowledge away as well as adding new. Nystrom & Starbuck (1984) argued that organizations get into crisis because the beliefs behind past success stop them from seeing that the world has moved.

Source: The journey of organizational unlearning: a conversation with William H. Starbuck.

See also: Competency Trap, Core Rigidities, Planned Abandonment. From How do organizations throw (AI) stuff away?

Mentioned in

Also, Subtraction Neglect is mentioned in

Also, Exploration vs. Exploitation is mentioned in

Also, Core Rigidities is mentioned in

Also, Exit Champion is mentioned in

Also, Escalation of Commitment is mentioned in

Also, Sunk Cost Fallacy is mentioned in

Also, Status Quo Bias is mentioned in

Also, IKEA Effect is mentioned in

Also, Competency Trap is mentioned in

Also, Active Inertia is mentioned in

Also, Value Infusion is mentioned in

Also, Structural Inertia is mentioned in

Also, Permanently Failing Organizations is mentioned in

Also, Resource Allocation Trap is mentioned in

Also, Collective Belief is mentioned in

Also, Project Escalation is mentioned in

Also, Policy Termination is mentioned in

Also, Advocate Adoption, Not Termination is mentioned in

Also, Organizational Immortality is mentioned in

Also, Planned Abandonment is mentioned in

Also, Endings First is mentioned in

Also, Code as Liability is mentioned in

Also, Hyrum's Law is mentioned in

Also, Deprecation Policy is mentioned in

# Oct 23, 2026
← All posts