The February issue of our newsletter, Sharpening the Axe, was all about change. Here are some more thoughts to help you keep up the momentum on your journey of change until the next issue. This is an edited version of a longer article. Please visit www.ashteadgroup.org to read the full article.
How to surpass your limits
It’s about making your practice perfect
Here’s a question for you. Is a heart surgeon of 20 years standing more skilled than a heart surgeon of five years just because he’s been doing the job longer?
Although it may seem strange the answer is no. Here’s why.
Many of us make the assumption that the correlation between time in a profession and performance levels is of primary importance. That may be the case at certain levels but when it comes to the professional elite, there is no correlation whatsoever between these two factors.
It’s practice that makes the difference at this level. But not just any practice.
Making practice perfect
Not all practice is good practice. It’s deliberate practice that makes the difference: it’s all about using your practice time wisely.
Let me explain. With simple tasks like typing and driving, we reach our highest level of proficiency after about 50 hours of practice. After this our performance skills become automated. We’re able to execute such tasks smoothly and with minimal effort, but further development stops. We assume we’ve reached our highest performance level and don’t think to learn new and better methods.
Applied over an entire career, this same pattern of stopping our development yields fairly unsatisfactory results. For example, most professionals progress until they reach an acceptable level; then they plateau.
So what does create improvement? Of course time counts but it’s all about the skill of practice that makes it perfect. And that’s deliberate practice.
Take a trip to KUBA
We use the KUBA model with our clients to illustrate what’s needed to take clear action towards surpassing their limits:
Know
Understand
Believe
Act
If you simply Know and Understand what you need to change, nothing is likely to ever happen. That’s why so much learning on training courses never finds its way into the workplace. It is only when you Believe in what you are doing, when you see it’s worth the effort, and believe you can do it, that you will Act to make the change.
It‘s through deliberate practice that people learn to believe.
To find out more about deliberate practice, visit our website to read this article in full www.ashteadgroup.org
Please pass it on to anyone you think it might interest.
The next issue of our newsletter, Sharpening the Axe, will go out at
the end of March.