john gibbon
  • Bio
  • Stanford Class
  • Product Mgt
  • Product Dev
  • Career Resources
  • Blog
  • Talking Product Strategy

Deliberate Practice

10/27/2008

1 Comment

 

Geoff Colvin in "Why Talent is Overrated" (Fortune 10/21/08) argues that "deliberate practice" explains achievement and is more important than talent.
Deliberate practice:
     -is designed specifically to improve performance
     -can be repeated frequently
     -allows for feedback
     -is demanding mentally
     -is hard
     -can done before, during, and after the work activity itself.

Colvin writes that the best performers set goals about the process to improve a specific elements of their work. They are able to monitor what is happening and determine how well it is going (metacognition).  Deliberate practice is an investment, the costs come now and the benefits later.

I always thought I was a decent public speaker.  When I took "Communicate to Influence" by Decker Communications (highly recommended) and a coach pointed out some obvious bad habits that I needed to correct. I now realize that I will never become a great public speaker without deliberate practice.

1 Comment
Peter
11/2/2008 10:10:29 pm

Great point! Calls to mind a book that Sarah recently recommended to me call Mindset http://www.mindsetonline.com/

A great read and I would highly recommend it.

PS Like the blog :)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Books
    Careers
    Cloud Computing
    Culture
    Energy
    Enterprise2
    Humor
    Marketing
    Product Management
    SaaS
    Smart Grid
    Strategy

    Archives

    July 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    July 2021
    June 2020
    May 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    September 2017
    July 2016
    August 2014
    March 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    June 2012
    March 2012
    March 2010
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008

    RSS Feed



    The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent my company's positions, strategies, or opinions