We’re now into month six and lucky episode # 13 of Frankly MSP. We’ve heard from many of you that you;’re enjoying the content finding it helpful — which is wonderful.

Thanks to listener Andy Helsby for letting us know that comments were previously disabled on show notes! We fixed that, and welcome your feedback on each show.

Dominic Price is a work futurist and the head of R&D at Atlassian, the makers of Jira, Confluence, and other tools. Dom is responsible for managing five global R&D centers for Atlassian, and is tasked with helping these teams and the company overall scale efficiently and effectively. Today, we’ll be talking about a neat productivity tip called unlearning.

But first, What’s Going On with Richard Tubb and Karl Palachuk.

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What’s Going On

[02:48] Karl just finished reading Anarchy Inc.: Profiting in a Decentralized World with Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. He l likes the author’s positive attitude about a world where there will be more anarchy than we think.

[03:27] We don’t have to have a dystopian view of anarchy.

[03:41] A lot of people will lose their jobs to robots. But a lot of people will benefit from the new era. The world is changing fast and at a dramatic speed.

[04:02] A study out of Washington University estimates that 40% of Fortune 500 companies in business today will not exist in 10 years.

[04:14] Anarchy is decentralized. If you use blockchain to sell a car you take the government out of it. This will cause a lot of disruption. There is no stopping the future.

[05:14] it’s a very different world without government and major corporations in the middle.

[05:26] Richard blogged about a company called earn.com that pays you to receive emails.

[05:59] With blockchain, you can be rewarded for likes on social media posts.

[06:17] This also applies to books.

[06:36] Imagine distributing content without Amazon. Could Amazon disappear? It’s almost inconceivable but it could happen.

[07:15] Not all anarchy is bad, like the decentralized blockchain.

[07:55] MSPs are particularly concerned about protecting their clients from cybercrime. Apple and Cisco have teamed up with insurance companies to offer cyber policy discounts.

[08:20] Karl says the news means Apple is taking business very seriously.

[09:04] You have to ask the question though, how many businesses actually use Apple products?

[09:30] At the small business level, Cisco products are not that popular either.

[09:52] Small business clients have to pass an audit to get this type of cyber insurance. This often requires a lot of remediation.

[10:28] There is a big part for MSPs to play in helping companies get through these audit and insurance assessments.

[11:34] These insurance audits could be our next high-growth opportunity.

[12:35] in 2016, only 29% of businesses had even looked into cybersecurity insurance. In 2017, it has risen to 37%.

13:44] This is an opportunity for MSPs and it could become a big part of their business.

Interview with Dom Price: Unlearning Your Way to Greater Productivity

Dom Price head of R&D Atlassian Frankly MSP podcast interview
Dom Price, Atlassian

[16:57] Unlearning is forgetting, on purpose, the things that are no longer valuable to you. It’s purposefully selecting things to stop doing.

[17:46] Dom learned of the unlearning concept from Sophie Wade in New York.

[18:14] If we’re not changing at the same rate as our organization, we’re effectively a drag on the organization.

[18:38] Dom asked himself what rituals he has adopted when he first joined Atlassian that were now no longer relevant.

[20:10] The first thing Dom did was do a lot of reading about unlearning, but this was a mistake. Knowledge without practice is meaningless.

[20:40] He knew he needed to just do it and find the easiest way to practice it.

[21:01] He uses the 4 Ls: Loathed, Longed For, Loved, and Learned.

[21:27] Dom looks for the things he loves and tries to do more of those.

[21:50] The Longed For is the thing he wished he had done. But he can’t add in a Longed For if he doesn’t take out a Loathed. His time is the constraint.

[22:35] As you get better at this exercise, you get rid of things that don’t serve your purpose.

[23:09] Unlearning helps ensure that each quarter you have the freedom, time, space, and mindset to learn. It helps you stay focused and ensure the things you’re doing are high impact.

[24:54] If you want to have impact, do fewer things and do them well.

[25:16] Delegate the things that continue to have value. But don’t delegate things that don’t have value!

[26:25] Unlearning is most profound for leaders. Role change is often a great time to take a look at it.

[27:22] The benefits of unlearning include understanding the true value of time. Thinking about things as trade-offs make them more impactful. Challenge yourself on how you want to spend your time.

[28:32] For Dom, unlearning has also made him better at failing. He used to talk a lot about innovation and experimentation. Now he does them even though it means he may fail a lot more because he’s trying new things for the first time.

[29:52] If you’re not going to try something like unlearning, you’re essentially saying your environment is static, predictable, and controllable.

What’s Going On

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