🌟 Sometimes the most valuable part of learning is discovering what we need to let go of 🌟
12 August 2026Yesterday I submitted my application to become a certified AQai Level 3 Master Practitioner. I’m obviously hoping I’ve done enough to achieve the accreditation, but the process has made me reflect on something rather more important than another qualification.
The AQai practitioner pathway has evolved alongside its expanding adaptability toolkit — from Level 1 ‘Foundations’, through Level 2 ‘Professional’, and now to the newly introduced Level 3 ‘Master’.
I’ve been fortunate to be part of the inaugural L3 cohort, led by AQai CEO and co-founder Ross Thornley, MABP.
But here’s the irony. The further I’ve progressed in studying adaptability, the more I’ve realised that mastery isn’t necessarily about just knowing more.
Sometimes it’s about being willing to question what we think we already know.
Years working across HR, leadership, change and business inevitably create patterns — assumptions about what works and shortcuts based on experience. That’s valuable. Until, perhaps, it isn’t.
Two areas I’ve reflected whilst absorbing the L3 syllabus were my relationship with the sub-dimensions of ‘Mindset’ and ‘Unlearning’.
Perhaps part of wanting to become expert is developing the mindset to question what experience has taught us and the ability to unlearn it when it no longer serves us (whether it is a total or partial unlearn).
Unlearning isn’t about discarding experience. It’s about refusing to let experience become a constraint.
And 🛑… there’s an organisational lesson here too. Organisations invest significant time, money and energy in transformation, technology, new skills and new ways of working, understandably expecting a return on that investment. But achieving that return isn’t simply about investing in the change. We also need to invest in the people and create the environment in which people can adapt to it.
Because the value of a new strategy, system or capability isn’t realised when we introduce it. It’s realised when people are able to adapt and use it.
So perhaps one of the most valuable questions I’m taking away from L3 isn’t:
“What have I learned?”, it’s “What am I still holding onto that I might need to unlearn?”
And if this makes you more curious about AQai – Adaptability Assessments & Coaching, adaptability, Mindset or Unlearning, reach out, not just to me, but to anyone across the wider AQai practitioner community.
We have a common bond of seeking to understand adaptability better and use that understanding to help individuals, teams and organisations create the conditions where change can succeed.
👀 Because better adaptability isn’t the outcome. It’s what helps us achieve better outcomes. 👀
