You may have been in the company for more than five years now and you can consider yourself as one of the “oldies” in the company. Because of company hopping and migration, everyone just wanted to stay in one company for at least a year or two and then move on to a better opportunity. On the other hand, you stayed in one company and hoped to stay there a little bit longer.

During your tenure, you have learned so many things and have done them effectively. However, there are new things that are coming out and you have to learn them as soon as possible. It may be a new policy, new software, new equipment or a new skill required to handle the specific task.

Unlearning Through Transition

One of the biggest reasons why new things are often seen as scorn in any workplace is the adjustment everyone has to make. The old technique has to be unlearned as the new technique has to be used. In writing it looks really easy but in reality, old techniques are really difficult to be forgotten. It will take time before the new technique is observed and it might cost the company considerable resources.

To “unlearn” something that was used to be essential in a business process is difficult but not impossible as long as openness to learning and unlearning is there. Instead of totally switching to the new technique a manager should know the difficulty of the transition and should make a program to slowly introduce the process.

For example, a company is introducing a web based application which will replace the old “DOS-Based” application. Instead of a full transition, certain processes could be done in the new interface while other processes could still be handled by the old application. Eventually, the new application will completely take over as employees will be at ease with the new interface.

Constant Monitoring

The unlearning phase will not only be difficult for the employee but also for the company. To ensure that the process of transition is according to company expectations, constant monitoring has to be done. A company might need to create another team just to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible.

Going back to the example, the company has created a monitoring team who will handle errors that were made in the new interface and try to fix them with the old interface or any other applications. It will cost the company resources especially in manpower but its worth it since it will ensure that the transition is smooth and errors could be used as training examples.

Aggressive Change

As an employee, you have to be very aggressive in handling changes in your company. Through technological advances, new things are being introduced almost every year and coping up with the changes are getting more difficult. The employee has to be updated even before updates are fully implemented. The company on the other hand, should know when will the changes happen and inform their employees as soon as possible especially the specific transition actions.