Wendy Kutchner, Ed.M.

Temple University

James M. Caldwell, O.D., Ed.M.

Salus University

The Elements

How It Works

Applying the Principles to Yourself

Applying the Principles Within Your Organization

Applying the Principles to Teams Within Your Organization

How Will You Apply It

Final Thoughts

“Deliberate Practice” is a phase used throughout this presentation based on the concept of put forth by Geoff Colvin in his book:

Talent Is Overrated: What Really

Separates World-Class Performers

from Everybody Else.

1. Designed specifically to improve performance – often with a teacher’s help

2. Can be repeated – a lot

3. Feedback on results is continuously available

4. Places high demand on mental abilities

5. Is not fun

6. Prevents “Automaticity”

“Designed” is the key attribute

Teacher provides unbiased view of the subject’s performance

“Stretches the subject” beyond his/her present abilities

“comfort zone” … “learning zone” … “panic zone”

Find your “learning zone” and stay in it as you develop

“practice tees to sand traps”

Activities most likely to benefit are those that can be repeated at high volume

Top performers practice to an “extreme extent”

Repetition – enhances the likelihood of desired outcome “when it counts”

Teacher, coach or mentor is vital for providing this feedback

Often results require “interpretation”

Not getting feedback is like bowling under a curtain that hides the pins

Staying intent on seeking those activities that need improvement and then trying one’s best to constantly improve places strain on mental abilities

If you’re mind is engaged results come more efficiently

Doing things we do well is fun, this is not what Deliberate Practice demands

“If the activities that lead to greatness were easy and fun, then

everyone would do them…” This … “can even be seen as good news. It means that most people won’t do it. So your willingness to do it will distinguish you all the more.”

Talent Is Overrated – page 72

Learning process: attention, coordinate knowledge, automatic

“We don’t need to be great at things, just good enough to carry on with our lives.”

Talent Is Overrated, p.82

Preventing automaticity through Deliberate Practice helps ensure continuous improvement

Deliberate Practice How It Works

Deliberate Practice is about pushing beyond our current capabilities

Deliberate Practice causes the mind and body to change by:

1. Perceiving More

2. Knowing More

3. Remembering More

Understand Indicators that Average Performers Don’t Even Notice Tennis players observe opponent’s hips, shoulders, arms

Oil stains in the parking lot

Look Further Ahead Expert typists & musicians scan ahead

Know More From Seeing Less Novice drivers don’t see danger

Quarterbacks – “tendencies”

Finer Discriminations than Average Performers Artist, designer, hairdresser being able to distinguish “shades of black”

1950s-1970s: Researches tried to prove that great performance came from superior reasoning methods and reasoning power

Hence the push to develop supercomputers and artificial intelligence

Eventually researches realized the importance of “knowledge” to any expert system

“If you set a goal of becoming an expert on your business, you would immediately start doing all kinds of things you don’t do now”.

The conclusion, “In the knowledge resides the power.” Talent Is Overrated, p. 95, 121

Novices and experts have the same relative short-term memory capacity – about 7 items (5 – 9 is the range)

The key is what can be done with items

Chunk Theory

216095873871

2-1-609-587-3871

Deliberate Practice Applying the Principles to Yourself

1. Know Where You Want to Go

2. Directed Practice

3. Practice in the Work

4. Deepen Your Domain-Specific Knowledge

1. Know Where You Want to Go The demands of exceptional performance will be

overwhelming without a commitment

After graduation, most careers don’t come with a curriculum or syllabi

Identify a Mentor – a master in your field

Seize opportunities to engage in Deliberate Practice Directed Practice

Practice in the Work

2. Directed Practice Preparing for the event

The Music Model Presentations/Speeches Performance Evaluations

The Chess Model

Case-based

The Sports Model

Conditioning skills you have Critical Skills

Dynamic Situations (simulators)

3. Practice in the Work Think it through in your head

“before the work”

“during the work”

“after the work”

Practice in the Work

“Before the Work” Set goals

Plan how to reach the goal

Practice in the Work

“During the Work” Self-observation

Best performers “step outside themselves” and monitor

what is happening in their mind Metacognition – helps you adapt to changing conditions

Practice in the Work “After the Work”

Done well, you will identify areas for improvement

Best performers seek to find ways to prevent recurrence of the error

Average performers tend to tell themselves “the circumstances were beyond my control”

How will you respond?

Best performers adapt how they will act in the future; welcome repeat performance

Average performers avoid similar situations in the future

Practice in the Work “After the Work”

Evaluate Yourself

Best performers judge themselves against their best performance, benchmark competition or best known performance in a specific field

Average performers tend to tell themselves “they did the best they could”

“Stretch” yourself, but do it appropriately

Standard too high – discouraging

Standard too low – no advancement

4. Deepen Your Domain-Specific Knowledge Best performers operate from highly developed,

intricate mental models built from domain knowledge

Mental models are the framework on which you hang future knowledge

Mental models help you discern relevant information from irrelevant information

Mental models help you predict what will happen next

Mental models are never finished; always impacted by Deliberate Practice and meta-cognition

Deliberate Practice

Applying the Principles Within Your Organization

Today, organizational success is impacted as much by human capital as by financial capital.

Today’s best young employees, on whom the future rests, are seeking employers who will make them better performers.

New employees consistently rank professional development at or near the top of criteria for choosing an employer.

Talent Is Overrated, p.127

Each person in your organization is doing more than just a job – ideally they are being ‘stretched and grown’

Resist the temptation to only assign people work ‘they are

good at doing’

If an organization wants to grow, it must deal with this concept

Talent Is Overrated, p.128

Find ways to develop leaders within their positions

Many organizations feel the tension between the need to

develop individuals by moving them through different positions vs. the benefit of an individual developing expertise (domain-specific knowledge) within a position.

Financial reward tied to successful outcomes on ‘stretch assignments’ rather than just vertical movement on the organizational chart.

Talent Is Overrated, p.130

Encourage leaders to be active in their communities

Many organizations find that the skills acquired from being

involvement in organizing community events or participating on a board of directors are directly transferrable to the workplace

Strategic planning

Financial analysis

Consider professional organizations: AACRAO, MSACRAO, DVACROA

Talent Is Overrated, p.130

Make leadership development part of the culture of your organization Make it “a way of living” instead of a program

Honest feedback should be welcomed, accepted and expected

Mentoring should be apparent within the organization

Talent Is Overrated, p.135

Identify promising performers early An early start at development activities pays dividends

Begin to evaluate leadership potential on the first day of employment

An indicator of leadership is how someone with no authority gets other to work with him/her

Talent Is Overrated, p.133

Deliberate Practice How Will You Apply It?

2-minute exercise

How will “deliberate practice” help you achieve world class results?

Personally

As a mentor

Share you thoughts?

Deliberate Practice Final Thoughts

“Applying the principles of great performance in an organization is no easier than doing anything else in an organization. It’s hard. But in an increasing competitive global economy, enterprises that want to survive and thrive will face little choice. If we suppose that every organization will sooner or later be trying to apply these principles, then it’s important to remember that starting early confers significant advantage. The effects of deliberate practice activities are cumulative. The more of a head start your organization gets in developing people individually and as teams, the more difficult it will be for competitors ever to catch you.”

Talent Is Overrated, p.144

Thank You !

kutchner@temple.edu

jcaldwell@salus.edu