Mark McKenna- deliberate practice report.docx

7/29/2019 Mark McKenna- deliberate practice report.docx

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Mark McKenna

12/12/2012

Deliberate Practice to Develop Meaningful Skills on the Job

Introduction

How does an employee who stocks shelves in a grocery store prepare to be a store

manager of his own grocery store? Of a surety, he will need to possess the necessary

skills to manage a store in order to qualify for this position. If he does not already

possess these skills, here is a scenario by which he might accomplish this.

First, he will identify which skills he still needs to develop in order to successfully

manage a store. Then, if he can figure out a method for developing those skills through

the job tasks that he is already performing, he will make himself increasingly more

qualified by doing what he is already doing each day. The key would be for him to

understand that he will significantly develop skills in this way only if he deliberately

practices those skills. For example, simply moving the product from boxes to the

shelves may not prepare him very well to manage his own store, but what if he practices

memorizing what product goes in each aisle? And what if he starts measuring which

product runs out the fastest? He can also pay attention to truck deliveries and learn

about how orders are placed. He can do timings to determine how long it takes to get

product from delivery to the shelf or he can figure out profit margins on certain

products. By making slight modifications to his job tasks he can develop the skills

needed to budget, inventory, coordinate departments, and merchandise the way a store

manager does.

Regardless of whether a grocery stocker wants to become a store manager or not, there

are many skills that he can develop on the job that will make him a more capable


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grocery stocker. Certainly by studying what product goes in what aisle he can become

more effective in stocking shelves and assisting customers. Measuring and increasing

his speed and efficiency in completing tasks will increase his productivity and save the

company money. If he takes the opportunity to deliberately practice a skill that he cares

about, he will become more motivated to do his job. His level of job satisfaction will

probably increase. He will achieve valuable results that, if measured and captured, he

can share with his manager to get a potential pay increase or a promotion or to qualify

for a different position in another company.

There is a key idea here in that employees can engage in self-development activities

that are meaningful to the individual and that also produce valuable results for the

organization. This can be done through deliberate practice.

The Problem

Associates at Deseret Industries participate in a training program intended to help them

become self-reliant employees and gain new employment in their chosen field. Each

associate creates a plan and participates in goal-setting each week leading up to the

time that they receive a new job. They also participate in various job-related trainings,

including: job search techniques, customer service, vocational training, supervisory

skills, and English language development. In the midst of this training experience they

are also working in a retail or production environment. This work environment can be

an incredibly valuable setting in which associates can develop the skills they will need in

their future employment, yet the vast majority of associates are not conscientiously

developing skills through their job tasks. These on-the-job learning experiences are

usually lost in the shuffle of day-to-day operations.

There are 2 main parts to the problem:


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1. Associates are unable to identify the transferrable skills they have gained atDeseret Industries (that better qualify them for their future employment).

2. Associates do not deliberately practice developing skills that will transfer to theirfuture employment.

Needs Assessment:

Quantitative Evidence:

Departments average below 80% productivity on a consistent basis as calculatedweekly by management.

The work at Deseret Industries gets done, but it gets done with too many peoplein too many hours (labor cost is above budgeted amount).

Qualitative Evidence (from managers, other job coach trainers, and personal

observation):

Managers estimate that a very low percentage of associates (below 10%) areable to describe their skills in a persuasive way.

Every associate takes a career workshop in which they learn about how todescribe their skills to a prospective employer, but even directly after the

workshop the great majority of associates cannot explain how their skills lead to

results.

Most associates cannot identify specific examples of how they havedemonstrated valuable skills on the job.

They lack the ability to connect the jobs they perform at Deseret Industries withthe jobs they want.

All of this results in a workforce that is not sufficiently engaged, motivated, or

productive.


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Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of my creative project is to introduce a process by which employees can

develop pertinent skills and achieve meaningful results directly from the work tasks they

perform every single day in a way that will better qualify them for the jobs they are

preparing to get. Drawing from Ericssons concept of deliberate practice, this method

of on-the-job training will empower employees to deliberately practice a specific skill

over the course of one month. Through this practice they will not only significantly

increase their proficiency of the skill in a concentrated way but they will also

purposefully achieve organizational results. They will eliminate their bad practice and

experience meaningful personal development. This combination of skill development

and results will increase the employees employability in a powerful way.

This process will apply the framework described in Daniel Pinks book, Drive: Autonomy,

Mastery, and Purpose. Employees will autonomously select the skill they want to

develop and the method they will use to develop it. They will exercise mastery as they

intensely practice this skill during a four-week period and report on their results to the

rest of the team weekly. Each employee is engaged in the purpose of becoming self-

reliant in order to be successful in his or her future employment.

The anticipated results from this project are:

1. A power statements developed by each participant that describes meaningfulskills and powerful results achieved through deliberate practice.

2. A report summarizing the projects usefulness and scope (this document).3. A presentation that showcases findings and applications.

In addition to these results, I also anticipate the following:

1. Sales in our departments will increase (or at least maintain)2. Productivity will increase


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3. Employee fulfillment and engagement will increase

Review of Literature

There are a few key research points that guided the design of my project. Deliberate

practice is a concept that K. Anders Ericsson described as the method by which novice

practitioners develop into expert practitioners (Ericsson, 1993). This practice involves

concentrated effort with immediate feedback. While my project does not concern itself

with the development of expert performance, it centers on the idea that the quality of

our practice has a far more significant impact on increases in performance than the

quantity of our practice or the natural talent that we bring to the table. Employees

participating in my project will develop a personal plan to practice a skill in a deliberate

and focused way in order to increase the quality of their practice and maximize their

performance gains.

Daniel Pink describes a model for increasing employee motivation and performance

(Pink, 2009). He includes three important components that drive motivation:

autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Autonomy implies giving employees the ability to

govern their own work in key areas that will enable them to make choices in the areas

that matter to them. Mastery consists in making it possible for employees to become

progressively competent and skilled at what they are doing. Purpose is the idea of

providing employees with the sense that what they are doing is bigger than their

individual contribution and is the fulfillment of a higher ideal. Pink suggests that if an

organization follows this model for motivation their employees will experience

increased engagement and performance. I included this model in the design of my

project.

Teresa Amabile (2011) studied factors influencing employee success and found that by

supporting progress in meaningful work, managers improve employees inner work lives


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and the organizations performance (p. 12). This is known as the progress principle. I

have incorporated an element of recognizing and reporting progress as a key part of my

project.

Drawing on the findings of this research, my project serves as a systematic application of

these findings to discover their effectiveness in the context of my workplace.

Procedures and Methodology

Preparation Work and Present to Team (PURPOSE)I created a worksheet to introduce the project to the employees and presented

the project to the employees (see Appendix 1).

Week 1 (AUTONOMY)

I assisted each employee in completing a worksheet that:

identifies the skill they want to practice identifies the specific job tasks that will give them the opportunity to practice

the skill

identifies a method for measuring progress identifies the anticipated organizational results that will stem from their

deliberate practice

Once all employees completed the worksheet I directed a meeting in which each

employee shared his/her plan with the team (see Appendix 2).

Weeks 2-5 (MASTERY)

Employees developed skill through job tasks (see Appendix 3). I provided

frequent follow-up and support throughout each week.


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Employees reported weekly to team (reflection & articulation) and showed

progress (progress principle). I facilitated the reporting process.

Week 6 (Summary)

Each employee summarized his or her development experience.

Each employee created a power statement (Skill Example Result).

I served as a coach through this process.

Create a presentation

I will create a presentation to showcase my ideas and findings, which I will

present during a USU ITLS graduate student forum on April 4, 2013.

Reporting/Implementation Process

I maintained contact with my advisor, Yanghee Kim, every two weeks to formatively

evaluate the project and make adjustments as needed. The timeline for the projectfollowed the anticipated schedule.

Findings

Given the voluntary participation of my team in this project, not all employees

committed to participate. Out of thirteen potential participants, nine completed a

preliminary development plan with the intention of participating fully in the project but

due to a variety of factors only five employees completed the entire four-week

experience.


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Four participants summarized their weekly progress, outlining milestones and progress

through each of the four weeks.

Name Weekly Progress Report

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

Virginia Staging was

disorganized.

Organized

items in a

neater fashion.

Quality of some

items that went

out were

causing the

staging to beoverflowed.

Staging was still

disorganized but

had gotten better.

Low quality of

items were still

going out to the

sales floor but had

gotten better.

Need work on

Code 2scommunicating

what they

needed.

Staging was

organized.

Quality of items

going out to sales

floor looked better.

Communication

with Code 2s was

better.

Staging looked

awesome.

Quality of items

helped with the

sales.

Communication

with team and

organization

was good.

Camron dirt on wall

under sanitizer

bottom of

toilets

urinals

stall door

break roommachines

prog 1 +

behind toilet

feminine hygiene

dispensers

above stalls

Prog 1 & 2 +

walls

under soap

Prog 1, 2, & 3 +

under toilets

sides of

urinals/by

urinals/under

urinals

above doorbottom of stalls

Joshua Decided what

areas to track

and began

gathering

speeds and

numbers.

Wide range

between cart

times. Average is

at 40 min. per cart

but actual cart

times varied

between 15 min.

and 75 min. Also

tried to track

items processed

per min. but it

proves to be

troublesome with

so many people

coming in and out.

Waves in speeds.

Morning avg was

60 min Evenings

were 28 min.

Reasons were

probably panic and

work faster to catch

up in afternoon.

Looking for

consistency.

Planned steps to

make it possible for

2 people to

complete 10 carts

in 8 hrs.

Accomplished

goal.

Cleanliness

turned out to be

a large factor in

increasing speed

consistantly. 2

people did 13

carts twice this

week and

moved through

more chrome

carts. Next goal:

1 person 10

carts 8 hours.


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Decided to stop

tracking items

processed and to

focus on carts.

Timer with high

goal of 30 min. and

a minimum of 45

min

Maitain clean

work environment.Process large

items ASAP

goal of 2.5 before

each break

Jacob found that a lot

of carts were in

need of regular

maintenance

figure which

ones needed tobe on regular

maintenance

schedule +

which ones

needed to be

fixed as needed

created scheduled

times of the year

that the carts

could + should be

greased for wheel

replaced.Cost of

maintaining vs

cost of replacing

implemented a

time how long it

should take to

replace or grease

the carts. Tweak

schedule

cont. to work on

the carts

After four weeks of deliberate practice and meeting to report on progress, each

employee developed a power statement as a way of capturing their accomplishment

and expressing it in a way that would be persuasive to current and future employers.

Power Statements

Chad

I am proficient at monitoring my time management. For an example, when I worked at

Deseret Industries I created a standard of time it takes to complete tasks. As a result I,

along with my team, was able to create more specific direction and instruction for thecustodial/maintenance team.

Camron

I am alert. For example, I inspected my work at Deseret Industries over a period of time.


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After each cleaning I found places that were frequently overlooked and took care of

them. As a result, complaints were reduced and the restrooms were cleaner.

Josh

I am efficient. For example, at Deseret Industries I was assigned to work in an area that

previously took 4 people 12 hours to complete. A co-worker and I created goals and

steps to make it more efficient and the result was that the 2 of us were able to complete

the same task in 8 hours, effectively increasing productivity and efficiency.

Jacob

I am a problem solver. As an example, I saw that the carts were getting hard to move

around and that they were tearing up the floor. I then made a schedule and

implemented it to fix and grease the carts. As a result I saved the company over athousand dollars a year on wheels and flooring and it made life easier on the workers.

Virginia

As a result of this project, these five employees significantly increased not only their

own productivity, but also the productivity of other team members. Josh reduced the

manpower needed to complete his processing goal by 100%. He and a coworker

reduced the time needed to complete the goal by 50%. These are significant gains in

employee productivity, even though his coworker opted out of participation and did not

consciously change any aspect of his work.

Chads time management goal affected our entire maintenance and custodial team (4

associates) by establishing time standards for the completion of tasks that enabled them

to finish major tasks in a consistent time and free up their schedule to complete

additional tasks that they were previously unable to complete. One of the reasons he

set this goal is because he was having difficulty managing time. He would frequently

miss break times because he lost track of time and he struggled monitoring the pace of

tasks. Through this project he has become possibly the most time-conscientious


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employee in the store. He now calls break time for the entire team and is very

consistent in ensuring that the team leaves and returns from lunch and break periods on

time.

Camron solved a major problem related to the way we cleaned our restrooms. Prior to

this project we were receiving frequent complaints regarding the cleanliness of the

restrooms. Through developing alertness Camron increase the quality of our hourly

restroom checks significantly and the complaints disappeared.

As Jacob began exploring cart maintenance he brought up issues to our store manager

that had never previously surfaced. Our store manager inquired about some of these

issues with our contracted supplier and discovered how to properly maintain our

donation carts. The supplier commented that these issues were not being addressed at

any store, so the changes we implemented in maintaining our carts will likely be

implemented at other stores as well.

The sales in our departments maintained increases of more than twenty percent over

the sales in the previous year. This was evidence that the deliberate practice of skillscontributed to, and did not distract from, organizational profitability.

On a final note, the participants of this project expressed an increased engagement at

work. They reported excitement at the progress they made and an increased

appreciation for their job tasks that others find menial. From a managerial perspective,

they became more proactive, invested, and energetic.

Implications


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These findings demonstrate that empowering employees to develop their skills in

meaningful ways on the job can have a profound impact on the quality and efficiency of

their work. Some principles can be drawn from this project that employees and

managers may benefit from using.

As an employee:

You will likely produce high quality work if the work is meaningful to you. The level of intrinsic motivation you have for performing a task is a function of

the extent to which the task is meaningful to you.

A task will likely be more meaningful to you if you get to choose the task(because you want to do it), you have a desire to master the task (because youchose it), and because the task aligns with a higher purpose (which is why you

chose it).

Deliberately practicing a skill is an effective way of achieving rapid learning gainsin the performance of the skill.

Reflecting on your learning and finding a purposeful way of articulating yourlearning causes you to achieve deeper learning that is more likely to influence

your behavior in a positive way.

Recognizing and reporting progress can help you maintain the level of intrinsicmotivation you have in regards to the tasks you perform.

As a manager:

You may achieve higher quality and efficiency from your employees by focusingon the development of the employee rather than on results.

If you can identify opportunities to allow your employees to choose their areasof development the employees will likely be motivated and anxious to improve

performance.


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You will lead effective change in your employees by facilitating reflection andarticulation of the learning that the employees are experiencing through their

work.

Accountability becomes increasingly more powerful as employees proactivelyreport on the progress they are making in areas of development that are

meaningful to them.

Future Direction

This project reinforces Daniel Pinks argument that intrinsic motivation leads to high

levels of achievement. However, the context for this project runs counter to one of the

elements of Pinks argument: that intrinsic motivation will improve performance to a

greater degree than extrinsic motivators as the complexity of the task increases, and

that extrinsic motivators will improve performance to a greater degree than intrinsic

motivation as the simplicity of the task increases. The tasks performed by the

participants typically require very little knowledge work. The participants were able to

make their job tasks more cognitively sophisticated by developing skills inferentially

through their job tasks. A next step in this project would be to implement this

systematized development process for employees whose work is truly routine and

menial. This would provide insight into what types of people and what types of

circumstances cause menial work to also be meaningful.


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Appendix 1

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Appendix 2


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Appendix 3: Tracking Sheets

Camron September 28- October 31 Week:

Skill: increase alertness by inspecting my work after completion and improving next time

InspectionsDate/Time Area observed and Observations

1 2 3 4


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Electronics Processing Results

Date # start t ime end t ime time/cart # items on cart # start time end time Who?

Silver Chrome CartGrey Shelf Cart


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References

Amabile, T.M., Kramer, S.J. (2011, May). The power of small wins. Harvard Business

Review, 80(12), 20-21. Retrieved August 20, 2012, from Business Source Premier/EBSCO

database.

Ericsson, K.A., Krampe, R.T. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of

expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363-407. Retrieved September 1,

2012, from Academic Search Premier database.

Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York, NY:

Riverhead Books.

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