Geoff Colvin, author of a book on deliberate practice, has written a well known article on deliberate practice in Fortune. He is very good on explaining the basics:
“It’s activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.
For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don’t get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that’s deliberate practice.
Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, ‘Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends.’ “
He also offers some decent tips for doing deliberate practice:
- “Approach each critical task with an explicit goal of getting much better at it.
- As you do the task, focus on what’s happening and why you’re doing it the way you are.
- After the task, get feedback on your performance from multiple sources. Make changes in your behavior as necessary.
- Continually build mental models of your situation - your industry, your company, your career. Enlarge the models to encompass more factors.
- Do those steps regularly, not sporadically. Occasional practice does not work.”
The article is business focused but a key criticism that others have made of Colvin’s work is that it tends to ignore the influence of great coaching as a source of motivation, constant and constructive feedback, and source of inspiration. I guess that’s not such a possibility for managers in their 40s.
Posted 2 years ago
