TRANSFORMATION: UNLEARNING STRENGTHENS COMPANIES AND BRANDS

Hanno Burmester is a consultant for top management, author, and founder of Unlearn in Berlin. For years, his work has involved supporting executives at large and medium-sized companies through profound change processes and researching how organizations can leave old patterns behind in order to develop new perspectives. In an interview with Prof. Dr. Bert Neumeister from the Master's program in Digital Marketing program at the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tirol, Burmester talks about the balance between preservation and letting go, purpose-driven marketing as a lived attitude, and the role of creativity in change processes. He shows how marketing can go beyond classic sales promotion to become a driver of social transformation - and why personal unlearning is often the first step toward real change.

In Your Book Unlearn: A Compass for Radical Transformation, YOU EMPHASIZE THAT TRANSFORMATION MUST NOT BE SUPERFICIAL, BUT RATHER QUESTION DEEP-ROOTED PATTERNS.

HOW CAN A BRAND FURTHER DEVELOP ITS IDENTITY IN A WAY THAT REMAINS TRUE TO ITS HISTORY WHILE ALSO BOLDLY BREAKING NEW GROUND?

Hanno Burmester: I am able to answer that from an organizational development perspective. Ultimately, a balance is needed between change and preservation that employees and customers can get behind. Every successful transformation requires an awareness of what should remain unchanged. In each of our projects, one of the first questions we work on with our customers is: What should be preserved? What is worth protecting, despite all the change? The answer to this question provides a center of gravity even for fundamental change. If successful, this is where the past and the future meet. At the same time, it is clear that transformation always means letting go of patterns that were previously part of one's identity but now prevent one from successfully adapting to the world. As harsh as it sounds, it is about consciously destabilizing one's identity where it no longer fits in with the times.

NOWADAYS, MANY ORGANIZATIONS TALK ABOUT PURPOSE-DRIVEN MARKETING. HOW CAN YOU TELL WHETHER PURPOSE IS REALLY BEING LIVED OUT IN AN ORGANIZATION OR IS JUST A MARKETING SLOGAN?

Burmester: This is easy to recognize. In organizations that take their purpose seriously, the organization's existential purpose plays a noticeable role in all matters of strategy and personnel or corporate development. In purpose-oriented cultures, the existential purpose is the most important reference point for strategic prioritization and operational orientation. This is especially true in contexts with high operational demands.

WHAT ROLE DOES CREATIVITY PLAY IN TRANSFORMATION PROCESSES - AND HOW CAN IT BE PROMOTED IN ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE STRONGLY CHARACTERIZED BY ROUTINES AND STRUCTURES?

Burmester: Transformation requires us to consider possible futures. This inevitably requires creativity. Interesting scenarios always await us where thinking becomes nonlinear and we are willing to consider options that seem unlikely. In addition, transformation requires a willingness to become someone else. How can we succeed in perceiving, thinking, and working together differently than before? Recognizing and letting go of old patterns, learning new ways of dealing with the world - for me, this ability to develop is one of the highest forms of human creativity.

Creativity cannot be learned overnight. That is why every transformation process needs people who can work creatively right from the start. One of the creative nuts they have to crack is how to design the change process in such a way that even those who prefer to stick to the tried and tested can go along with it.

What is the biggest obstacle preventing companies from letting go of old patterns?

Burmester: The inability to recognize these patterns. When I first started consulting, I had the opportunity to see some stagnant companies from the inside, particularly in the German automotive sector. What they all had in common was that they were unable to bring their completely outdated basic assumptions, beliefs, and autopilot mechanisms from the unconscious to the conscious. This made genuine change impossible because the source code remained untouched. Each of these companies is now in a serious structural crisis.

HOW CAN MARKETING GO BEYOND PURE SALES PROMOTION AND ACT AS A CATALYST FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION?

Burmester: I sometimes wonder where we would stand politically and socially if we had marketing budgets for climate and environmental protection similar to those for the sale of consumer goods. In other words, I believe that marketing is a tool that can be used meaningfully - or not. Unfortunately, capital, and with it marketing budgets, is currently on the side of those forces that want to prevent or slow down transformation.

ONE FINAL PERSONAL QUESTIOn: WAS THERE A BOOK OR EXPERIENCE THAT LED YOU PERSONALLY TO UNLEARNING - AND WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING DIFFERENTLY SINCE THEN?

Burmester: In Unlearn, I tell the story of how, in a completely trivial moment in my life - I was swimming - I suddenly knew that I had to restart my life. After that, I turned almost everything in my professional and private life upside down and rebuilt it. It wasn't pleasant, but it was the right thing to do. I knew then that my life had to change in order to become my own. I would say that I am a very different person today than I was five or ten years ago. I perceive things completely differently, think differently, control myself differently, relate to others differently, and so on. For me, that is the magic of life - we become who we are by questioning ourselves.