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“It’s always good to be courageous and curious. That really helps you to learn,” says Rahul Kalia, Vice President HR AMEA at Barry Callebaut.
In a fast-changing world, staying relevant isn’t just about learning more — it’s about unlearning what no longer serves us and adapting to stay future-proof. For Rahul Kalia, ‘unlearning’ isn’t a buzzword but a vital ritual.
Speaking at Human Resources Online’s Learning & Development Asia conference earlier this year, Kalia challenged the audience to rethink how we grow — not just through learning, but through unlearning. For him, it’s a daily discipline.
“Morning rituals help us set the tone for the day. You get up, have your coffee, go for a walk. Similarly, unlearning and learning are the rituals that help us navigate our professional journeys,” he shared.
Learning Is more than adding — It’s about rewiring
Kalia likens the brain to a library — constantly cataloguing new and old information. “Unlearning is not about forgetting. The brain creates new neural pathways while cataloguing the old ones.” He explains that learning is like carving a path through a dense forest:
“We create one small pathway, then repeat it again and again until it becomes a wide road.”
This process is rooted in neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to rewire itself. “What gets wired together gets fired together,” he says, quoting a well-known neuroscience principle. “Muscle memory isn’t in the muscles — it’s in the brain.”
Psychological safety Is the foundation of growth
This process of rewiring, he explains, is what enables true agility with adaptability — a quality Kalia believes many individuals and organisations still struggle to develop.
But learning doesn’t thrive under pressure. “Learning through stress creates a sense of threat. But learning through reward — through dopamine — is far more effective.” Kalia emphasised the importance of emotionally safe environments, where curiosity is encouraged and failure isn’t punished.
He recounts a childhood story about dismantling a tape recorder out of curiosity. Instead of scolding him, his father asked, “Why did you do this?” That moment shaped his belief: “It’s always good to be courageous and curious. That really helps you to learn.”
For Kalia, this anecdote illustrates why psychological safety matters — it gives people the confidence to explore without fear. Yet, he cautions that in today’s ambiguous world, where organisations are under pressure to succeed, experimentation cannot be treated as “throwing paint on canvas for fun.” It must be purposeful, disciplined, and linked to outcomes, ensuring that curiosity drives progress rather than chaos.
Why organisations are struggling to learn
That is why Kalia stresses that creating psychologically safe environments is essential. Yet, many organisations struggle with this. “Fear of failure is what holds us back. In a post-COVID environment, with greater accountability to shareholders, we’ve become tougher on ourselves,” he observes.
He emphasises that organisations function like human bodies — stable yet dynamic. Every organisation, he states, aspires to be both high-performing and continuously learning, where performance is unlocked when purpose, vision, strategy, and culture are seamlessly connected by a golden thread.
Achieving this requires agility with adaptability, ensuring value is created and protected for customers, stakeholders, and employees alike. Yet, many organisations still operate 70% reactively, 20% creatively, and only 5% strategically.
Creating a culture of agility
To evolve, Kalia believes that enterprises must embrace stability and dynamism. This transformation also extends to learning and development, which is shifting from standardised, efficiency-driven service delivery towards customised, knowledge-intensive strategic enablement. “Startups are very dynamic in nature. But remember, startups lack execution discipline.”
As transactional roles become automated or consolidated, new hybrid roles will emerge as strategic partners in business transformation. This involves assessing every idea through three lenses: desirability, feasibility, and viability.
Rethinking roles and skills
To maximise impact, he urges companies to “re-bundle” roles and enable agile movement across functions. “What gives you more energy — learning a new skill or learning a new experience? You can do both.”
“The key was creating an agile environment of learn fast, fail fast — one built on distributed trust. It was about challenging the hierarchical system that assumes only those at the top have the right to make decisions, and instead bringing decision-making closer to responsibility,” Kalia explains.
Ultimately, he believes learning is a lifelong mindset grounded in courage and curiosity. “It’s always good to be courageous and curious. That really helps you to learn,” he affirms.
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