The Art of Deliberate Practice for the Knowledge Worker...

Last week, I posted a simple question over at the HR Capitalist - Are the great ones born or developed?  That question was prompted by Fortune's Geoff Colvin, who has released a book titled "Talent is Overrated", in which he points to recent research that indicates that stars are usually not born, but developed through a practice called "deliberate practice".

Check out the comments to that post here, one of which really caught my eye from Knowledge Infusion's Suzanne Rumsey:

"Kris, you raised the question that I have been pondering since I read the excerpt of Colvin's book in Fortune: is the concept of deliberate practice at all applicable in today's business world, given how organizations must operate today to respond to the demands of shareholders, etc.? I am not sure that business stakeholders allow the time necessary for deliberate practice in most fields.... You mentioned an interest in how deliberate practice could be applied to knowledge work. I'd be interested to know how your thinking is coming together on this..."

So, that's the question of the post - How can the concept of deliberate practice, which Colvin cites as the key to talents as broad as Tiger Woods, Chris Rock and Eli Manning, be applied to the knowledge worker who deals with hundreds of events, issues and interruptions every day and can't necessarily take the time to practice the craft?

First, let's get you caught up on the concept, then talk after the video - stay with the length of the post if you didn't see it at the Capitalist- it's pretty compelling.  More on the theory from Colvin via Fortune:

"So if specific, inborn talent doesn't explain high achievement, what does? Researchers have converged on an answer. It's something they call "deliberate practice," but watch out - it isn't what most of us think of as practice, nor does it boil down to a simplistic practice-makes-perfect explanation.

It isn't just hard work, either. Deliberate practice is a specific and unique kind of activity, neither work nor play. It's characterized by several elements that together form a powerful whole. The greatest performers have consistently combined these elements, sometimes just by luck.

But now that researchers have decoded the pattern, the path to top performance is becoming much more accessible. The elements of deliberate practice are each worth examining:

1) Deliberate practice is designed specifically to improve performance. The key word is "designed." The essence of deliberate practice is continually stretching an individual just beyond his or her current abilities. That may sound obvious, but most of us don't do it in the activities we think of as practice. At the driving range or at the piano, most of us are just doing what we've done before and hoping to maintain the level of performance that we probably reached long ago.

By contrast, deliberate practice requires that one identify certain sharply defined elements of performance that need to be improved, and then work intently on them. Tiger Woods - intensely applying this principle, which is no secret among pro golfers - has been seen to drop golf balls into a sand trap and step on them, then practice shots from that near-impossible lie.

The great performers isolate remarkably specific aspects of what they do and focus on just those things until they're improved; then it's on to the next aspect. In most fields, years of study have produced a body of knowledge about how performance is developed and improved, and full-time teachers generally possess that knowledge.

At least in the early going, therefore, and sometimes long after, it's almost always necessary for a teacher to design the activity best suited to improve an individual's performance. It's striking how many great performers had fathers who started designing their practice activities at early ages; Tiger, Picasso, and Mozart are perfect examples.

So is the New York Giants' Super Bowl MVP quarterback, Eli Manning, whose father, Archie, was a successful NFL quarterback. Archie was always ready with instruction for Eli (and for his brother Peyton, Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts). Eli always seemed clear that intense practice was key. According to a new biography, Eli Manning: The Making of a Quarterback, "Eli never bought into the gene theory."

Fascinating stuff.  Watch the video and think about it the next time you're shooting hoops with your kid or watching them play an instrument...

So back to the question - How can the concept of deliberate practice be applied to the knowledge worker who deals with hundreds of events, issues and interruptions every day and can't necessarily take the time to practice the craft?.

First, I haven't read the book, but have it ordered and hope to knock it out in next couple of weeks.  With that said, there are a million different types of knowledge workers, and I'm an expert in one type - me.  Still, Suzanne hit on a key concept that no one has enough of - time.

So, time is the key for anyone to practice the art of deliberate practice.  Regardless of your knowledge craft, we all have something else in common - distractions.  That seems to place a premium on managing distractions as a precursor to any knowledge worker pursuing the art of deliberate practice, which would mean a couple of things:

1.  Knowledge workers doing a full implementation of a methodology like Getting Things Done to manage distractions, and

2.  Companies becoming more comfortable with the concept of knowledge workers unhooking from the email matrix for 2-3 hour periods to pursue the art of deliberate practice, regardless of their individual specialty.

My initial thoughts... What are yours?

Last week, I posted a simple question over at the HR Capitalist - Are the great ones born or developed?  That question was prompted by Fortune's Geoff Colvin, who has released a book titled "Talent is Overrated", in which he points to recent research that indicates that stars are usually not born, but developed through a practice called "deliberate practice".

Check out the comments to that post here, one of which really caught my eye from Knowledge Infusion's Suzanne Rumsey:

"Kris, you raised the question that I have been pondering since I read the excerpt of Colvin's book in Fortune: is the concept of deliberate practice at all applicable in today's business world, given how organizations must operate today to respond to the demands of shareholders, etc.? I am not sure that business stakeholders allow the time necessary for deliberate practice in most fields.... You mentioned an interest in how deliberate practice could be applied to knowledge work. I'd be interested to know how your thinking is coming together on this..."

So, that's the question of the post - How can the concept of deliberate practice, which Colvin cites as the key to talents as broad as Tiger Woods, Chris Rock and Eli Manning, be applied to the knowledge worker who deals with hundreds of events, issues and interruptions every day and can't necessarily take the time to practice the craft?

First, let's get you caught up on the concept, then talk after the video - stay with the length of the post if you didn't see it at the Capitalist- it's pretty compelling.  More on the theory from Colvin via Fortune:

"So if specific, inborn talent doesn't explain high achievement, what does? Researchers have converged on an answer. It's something they call "deliberate practice," but watch out - it isn't what most of us think of as practice, nor does it boil down to a simplistic practice-makes-perfect explanation.

It isn't just hard work, either. Deliberate practice is a specific and unique kind of activity, neither work nor play. It's characterized by several elements that together form a powerful whole. The greatest performers have consistently combined these elements, sometimes just by luck.

But now that researchers have decoded the pattern, the path to top performance is becoming much more accessible. The elements of deliberate practice are each worth examining:

1) Deliberate practice is designed specifically to improve performance. The key word is "designed." The essence of deliberate practice is continually stretching an individual just beyond his or her current abilities. That may sound obvious, but most of us don't do it in the activities we think of as practice. At the driving range or at the piano, most of us are just doing what we've done before and hoping to maintain the level of performance that we probably reached long ago.

By contrast, deliberate practice requires that one identify certain sharply defined elements of performance that need to be improved, and then work intently on them. Tiger Woods - intensely applying this principle, which is no secret among pro golfers - has been seen to drop golf balls into a sand trap and step on them, then practice shots from that near-impossible lie.

The great performers isolate remarkably specific aspects of what they do and focus on just those things until they're improved; then it's on to the next aspect. In most fields, years of study have produced a body of knowledge about how performance is developed and improved, and full-time teachers generally possess that knowledge.

At least in the early going, therefore, and sometimes long after, it's almost always necessary for a teacher to design the activity best suited to improve an individual's performance. It's striking how many great performers had fathers who started designing their practice activities at early ages; Tiger, Picasso, and Mozart are perfect examples.

So is the New York Giants' Super Bowl MVP quarterback, Eli Manning, whose father, Archie, was a successful NFL quarterback. Archie was always ready with instruction for Eli (and for his brother Peyton, Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts). Eli always seemed clear that intense practice was key. According to a new biography, Eli Manning: The Making of a Quarterback, "Eli never bought into the gene theory."

Fascinating stuff.  Watch the video and think about it the next time you're shooting hoops with your kid or watching them play an instrument...

So back to the question - How can the concept of deliberate practice be applied to the knowledge worker who deals with hundreds of events, issues and interruptions every day and can't necessarily take the time to practice the craft?.

First, I haven't read the book, but have it ordered and hope to knock it out in next couple of weeks.  With that said, there are a million different types of knowledge workers, and I'm an expert in one type - me.  Still, Suzanne hit on a key concept that no one has enough of - time.

So, time is the key for anyone to practice the art of deliberate practice.  Regardless of your knowledge craft, we all have something else in common - distractions.  That seems to place a premium on managing distractions as a precursor to any knowledge worker pursuing the art of deliberate practice, which would mean a couple of things:

1.  Knowledge workers doing a full implementation of a methodology like Getting Things Done to manage distractions, and

2.  Companies becoming more comfortable with the concept of knowledge workers unhooking from the email matrix for 2-3 hour periods to pursue the art of deliberate practice, regardless of their individual specialty.

My initial thoughts... What are yours?

Comments

[Meg Bear]

Personally I think this is all about accountability for your own career. Sure, companies need you to do specific things to earn your paycheck, that's great. The question is to you, how do you align your own need for deliberate practice to either a) the direct needs of your job or b) to those things you do "above and beyond" to move you forward.

The point is that this kind of success is not going to happen for free, you have to really work at it. Those who are better at pushing themselves forward are going to go farther. If you start with gifts all the better for you, but if you learn to push yourself, you will take your gifts farther.

[Wally Bock]

You can come at this from two directions. One is the direction of personal development.

It's worth noting that Eriscson's research didn't develop deliberate practice. He identified and described something that high performers were already doing. Because he has done that, anyone who wants to use it has a template. The technique is easy. It can be applied in a variety of situations.

I think that good supervisors have also been using the technique as a development method for their team members without having a name to put on it. Now that it's named you can add it to supervisor's toolkits.

[John]

i just installed a virtual desktop program on my computer. this puts projects and distractions into separate worksplaces. i will frequently leave the corporate email environment for the bulk of the day... this has never been an issue. in short i think you're right that controlling distractions is the first step in engaging in deep and useful effort. it's just the first step, though.