How You Can Become an Expert through Purposeful, Deliberate Practice

0:09 hello again 0:10 in this session you'll learn how experts 0:13 develop the knowledge skills and 0:15 experience 0:16 that make them exceptional at what they 0:18 do 0:19 regardless of whether you want to be a 0:21 superstar in your field 0:22 or whether you want to do a job that you 0:24 can be proud of 0:25 having an expertise that's meaningful to 0:27 you and others 0:28 is essential to your long-term success 0:31 it's also important because 0:33 organizations and societies need experts 0:36 as citizens we don't want to settle for 0:39 good enough pilots surgeons 0:41 nurses and engineers and we don't want 0:43 to drive cars with flawed airbags listen 0:46 to 0:46 meh concerts or tolerate mediocre 0:49 managers 0:51 if you want to become an expert in a 0:53 particular area 0:54 you'll need to invest in a special kind 0:56 of practice essential 0:58 to developing expertise experts in most 1:01 fields 1:01 develop their talents in similar ways 1:04 and that's the topic of this session 1:07 researcher anders ericsson calls the 1:09 kind of practice that develops expertise 1:12 purposeful deliberate practice 1:15 and it should come as no surprise that 1:17 experts spend more time developing their 1:19 craft 1:20 eleanor mcguire of the cab driver 1:22 studies found that the taxi drivers who 1:25 passed the knowledge exams 1:26 put in twice as many hours of studying 1:29 than those who didn't pass the exams 1:32 ericsson and his colleagues found that 1:34 it takes about 10 1:35 000 hours of practice which takes 1:38 several years 1:39 to become an expert this rule of thumb 1:42 has applied to superstar musicians 1:44 mathematicians athletes 1:46 as well as experts in many other 1:48 professions 1:49 although the ten thousand hour rule has 1:51 been debated for example 1:53 some researchers argue that the number 1:54 of hours needed to become an expert 1:56 differs 1:57 based on the knowledge and skills in 1:59 different areas such as games sports 2:01 music and professions 2:02 but researchers generally agree that 2:05 people who become experts practice more 2:07 often than those who don't 2:09 however people with world-class skills 2:12 don't just practice harder and longer 2:14 than others to learn their craft 2:16 they also practice better in a more 2:18 focused strategic and structured way 2:21 to increase their knowledge and skills 2:23 in a specific domain 2:25 it's the quality as well as the quantity 2:27 of hours of practice and experience 2:29 that turns someone into an expert 2:32 understanding how to practice better 2:34 matters not only to individuals 2:37 it also matters to organizations and 2:39 societies 2:40 just consider how much time that people 2:43 organizations and societies spend on 2:45 education and experience 2:47 billions of dollars are spent every year 2:49 on leadership development programs 2:51 globally undergraduate students in the 2:54 us 2:54 often graduate from public and 2:56 non-profit colleges with quite a bit of 2:58 debt 2:59 with all this time and money going into 3:01 training education and experience 3:03 you'd think that we'd have more experts 3:05 than we know what to do with 3:08 but here's the thing merely sitting 3:10 through classes or leadership 3:11 development programs 3:13 does not count as learning and going to 3:15 work every day 3:16 and doing your job doesn't count as 3:18 experience 3:19 if you're spending a lot of time just 3:21 going through the motions 3:23 to become outstanding in a particular 3:25 area of expertise 3:27 requires that you engage in focused 3:29 intensive and organized practice 3:32 day after day and year after year 3:36 it requires delayed gratification and a 3:38 lot of willpower 3:40 and that's why most people settle for 3:42 good enough 3:43 good enough is okay in many areas of our 3:45 lives but it's not okay 3:47 if people are depending on us to do our 3:49 jobs with a high level of expertise 3:53 now people who engage in intensive 3:55 practice 3:56 have the willpower to resist short-term 3:58 temptations so that they can achieve 4:01 their long-term goals 4:03 researcher roy baumeister warns that 4:05 willpower is a limited resources 4:07 so we have to use it wisely and here's 4:10 what he has to say about willpower 4:12 people who engage in intensive practice 4:15 have developed the willpower to resist 4:17 short-term temptations so that they can 4:20 achieve their long-term goals 4:22 researcher roy baumeister warns that 4:25 willpower can be depleted 4:27 you can think of willpower as filling a 4:29 bucket it doesn't matter what you use 4:31 your willpower on 4:33 the bucket gets emptied a bit each time 4:35 you use it 4:37 this means that if we use a lot of 4:39 willpower in one area 4:41 we'll feel like we have less willpower 4:43 available to use 4:44 in another and that's why people who are 4:47 experts in one area 4:48 are often mediocre in several other 4:50 areas 4:51 it's also why successful people often do 4:54 their hardest work early 4:56 in the day before the distractions of 4:58 the day kick 4:59 in and their willpower begins to dwindle 5:02 for example you can develop good habits 5:05 so that you don't wear yourself out 5:07 making so many decisions every day 5:09 that's why mark zuckerberg 5:11 the founder and ceo of facebook wears 5:13 the same light gray t-shirts and dark 5:15 gray sweatshirts 5:16 most of the time he says he wants to 5:19 save his energy for the more important 5:21 decisions he has to make 5:22 every day you can also manage the 5:25 environment around you so you don't have 5:27 to engage your willpower 5:29 for example you can keep unhealthy foods 5:31 out of the house so you don't have the 5:33 option to eat them at home 5:35 or you can install an app that won't let 5:37 you search the internet 5:38 when you should be working we'll discuss 5:41 these strategies 5:42 as well as others for increasing your 5:43 willpower later in this course 5:45 when you start working on your action 5:47 plan 5:49 now we'll turn to five steps for 5:51 becoming an expert through purposeful 5:53 deliberate 5:54 practice these steps include 5:57 first identifying your purpose second 6:00 creating a mental representation of 6:02 excellence third 6:04 developing your step-by-step strategy 6:07 fourth practicing with precision and 6:10 push 6:11 and fifth measuring your progress 6:15 okay so first you need to choose a 6:18 meaningful purpose 6:20 to commit to the rigors of intensive 6:22 practice you need to sincerely believe 6:24 that your long-term goal is worth the 6:26 time 6:26 toil and sacrifice it requires although 6:29 most people stop practicing once the 6:31 practice gets too difficult 6:33 or is no longer enjoyable experts 6:35 continue to practice to develop their 6:37 outstanding talent 6:39 they do so because they're committed to 6:42 their goals 6:43 and they connect them to making a 6:44 positive difference in the world 6:46 such as contributing to the well-being 6:48 of others 6:50 second you need to create a mental 6:52 representation of excellence 6:54 to become an expert you need to have an 6:57 idea in your mind about what expertise 6:59 looks like 7:00 to do this you can watch experts in 7:03 action in your desired area of expertise 7:05 and figure out what they do better than 7:07 novice or average performers 7:09 what makes them special what knowledge 7:12 and skills do they have 7:14 and how do they develop these what 7:16 degree certificates and awards do they 7:18 have 7:20 for example when i started out teaching 7:22 i sat in on the classes of some of the 7:24 top teachers at the business school 7:26 i watched how they taught i paid 7:29 attention to the techniques they used to 7:30 engage the students 7:32 i looked at the strategies they used to 7:34 organize their materials 7:36 and i went to workshops and read books 7:38 about how to become a teacher 7:40 who can inspire others over time of 7:42 course i developed my 7:44 own style and strategies but to this day 7:46 i still use some of what i learned by 7:48 watching expert teachers 7:49 earlier in my career the third thing you 7:52 need to do 7:53 is develop a step-by-step strategy once 7:57 you've identified what excellence looks 7:58 like 7:59 in the area you want to develop you'll 8:01 want to work backwards from your 8:02 long-term goals 8:03 and identify the specific knowledge 8:06 skills and experiences 8:08 as well as credentials you'll need then 8:11 you'll need to assess the knowledge 8:12 skills and experiences and credentials 8:15 you already have 8:16 once you've identified that gap you can 8:19 create your step-by-step 8:20 strategy now this involves breaking your 8:23 goals down 8:24 into smaller chunks of knowledge and 8:26 skills and then developing a plan 8:28 for learning and practice each of these 8:31 chunks 8:32 until you master them all 8:35 as you know chunking helps you turn an 8:37 ambitious goal 8:38 into a set of achievable steps 8:41 specifically 8:42 what knowledge of skill will you learn 8:44 and how will you learn it 8:46 learning each small chunk of knowledge 8:48 and skill on its own 8:50 may not feel that impactful but as 8:52 erickson says 8:54 progress comes as a series of baby steps 8:57 none very impressive on its own but they 9:00 can add up to an incredible journey 9:03 the next thing you need to do is 9:05 practice with precision and push 9:08 once you've identified the area of 9:10 performance you want to improve 9:12 you'll need to practice it in a 9:14 purposeful and deliberate 9:15 way for example if you want to improve 9:18 your communication 9:20 you might decide to say um and ah less 9:23 often 9:24 or you might decide to use more 9:26 compelling gestures 9:29 give your full attention to the task 9:31 each time you practice 9:33 erickson says it's better to train at 9:35 one hundred percent effort for less time 9:38 than at seventy percent effort for a 9:40 longer period 9:42 many experts engage in concentrated 9:44 practice for only two or five hours each 9:47 day 9:48 in one study ericsson asked expert 9:51 average and least accomplished violinist 9:54 to keep a log of the time they spent 9:56 practicing each week 9:57 he found that the violinist said they 9:59 spent the same amount of time practicing 10:02 but the most accomplished violinists use 10:05 their time 10:05 in a more focused way than the others 10:08 and practicing for just two hours each 10:10 day in a focused way for 10 years 10:12 adds up to 7 300 hours of deliberate 10:15 practice 10:16 and the good news is that many experts 10:19 take naps to rejuvenate 10:20 after their intensive practice once 10:24 you've reached a high level of 10:25 competence in a precise 10:27 area push yourself on to the next chunk 10:30 even if doing so means that you'll make 10:32 more mistakes 10:34 doing the same kind of practice of the 10:36 same skill 10:37 over and over again may feel comfortable 10:40 but it will not 10:41 increase your abilities competition 10:44 figure skaters for example 10:46 fall more during practice than average 10:48 skaters because they set more difficult 10:50 challenges for themselves 10:52 failure is part of the learning process 10:54 because making mistakes helps you 10:56 understand 10:57 what skills you don't yet have 11:00 ericsson says that the most learning 11:04 happens 11:04 at the edge of one's comfort zone 11:07 leadership researchers scott deru and 11:09 ned wellman 11:10 found that the best way to learn 11:12 leadership is to create what they call 11:14 optimal challenges if a challenge is too 11:17 hard 11:18 it can be overwhelming to the point that 11:20 it's disheartening 11:21 and nothing can be learned if the task 11:24 is too easy 11:25 it often offers no opportunity for new 11:27 learning 11:30 then you can also get a coach experts 11:33 often have coaches 11:34 particularly early in their careers who 11:37 help them develop their learning goals 11:39 and optimal challenges a coach can also 11:42 motivate you to push yourself harder 11:44 than you would on your own over time 11:46 you're likely to internalize the ability 11:48 to develop your own stretch goals 11:50 and stay motivated even without a coach 11:54 the last thing you need to do is 11:56 objectively measure your progress 11:59 you'll need to decide how you'll assess 12:01 whether you've achieved optimal 12:02 performance 12:03 in a particular area and one way is to 12:07 create smart goals 12:08 for every chunk of knowledge or skill 12:10 you want to develop 12:12 now smart stands for specific measurable 12:15 attainable relevant and time-bound 12:19 specific means that you've identified a 12:21 clear and unambiguous area of 12:23 improvement that you want to develop 12:26 saying i want to get healthy wouldn't be 12:28 specific 12:30 saying i want to eat more fruits and 12:32 vegetables still wouldn't be specific 12:35 saying i want to eat the equivalent of 12:37 three cups of fruits and vegetables 12:39 every day 12:40 would be specific measurable means that 12:44 you've established 12:44 concrete criteria for assessing when 12:47 you've achieved the standard of quality 12:48 you want to achieve 12:50 for each chunk of knowledge or skill you 12:52 want to develop 12:53 clear quality standards are important 12:56 because they help you self-correct along 12:58 the way before bad habits become etched 13:00 in 13:01 and hard to change attainable means that 13:05 you can realistically achieve 13:06 progress towards your goal remember that 13:09 optimal challenges are those that aren't 13:11 too 13:12 easy but they're not overwhelming to the 13:14 point that you can't make 13:15 any progress towards your goal said 13:18 another way 13:19 you don't want to bite off more than you 13:21 can chew 13:23 relevant means that the knowledge and 13:25 skill you want to master 13:27 fits with your short and long-term plan 13:29 to become an expert in your area 13:31 it's easy to become distracted focusing 13:34 on developing knowledge and skills 13:36 that may be interesting but they're not 13:38 central to the expertise you need to 13:40 develop to become 13:41 an expert in your desired area 13:45 and time bound means that you set clear 13:47 times 13:48 that you will spend developing the 13:50 knowledge and practicing the skill 13:52 as well as a clear deadline by when you 13:54 expect to have mastered the specific 13:56 goal so that's what experts do to build 14:00 the knowledge and skills that put them 14:02 at the top of their field 14:04 one of the most misleading things about 14:06 experts is that by the time we see them 14:08 do their thing 14:10 they make it look easy we rarely see the 14:13 toil behind the talent but if you look 14:16 at the history of 14:17 anyone who's a known expert you'll find 14:19 that they engaged in years of purposeful 14:22 deliberate practice 14:24 for example chris rock has achieved the 14:26 pinnacle of success 14:28 in his field of stand-up comedy rock 14:31 makes his stand-up comedy routines look 14:33 easy despite the years of purposeful 14:36 deliberate practice that he put into 14:38 each of his routines journalist david 14:41 carr 14:41 described the work that rock put into 14:43 developing his routine 14:45 for the new year's eve show at madison 14:47 square garden in 2007 14:49 this way he said for mr rock 14:52 being gifted is just about doing the 14:55 things that make it 14:56 look easy for many months he has been 14:58 piecing together his act in clubs in new 15:01 jersey new york 15:02 florida and las vegas comedy bit 15:05 by comedy bit he has built two hours of 15:08 material 15:09 one minute at a time culling the belly 15:12 laughs from the bombs 15:14 for him the 18 warm-up shows he did at 15:16 the stress factory in new brunswick new 15:19 jersey 15:19 preparing for the tour are more 15:21 important than his three 15:23 emmys vinnie brand the owner of the 15:26 stress factory said 15:28 he knows that they're going to give him 15:29 the first laugh because of who he 15:31 is but he came out here and worked on 15:34 his material 15:35 over and over cutting and trimming until 15:38 by the last show 15:39 you could not believe what he put 15:41 together 15:43 and so there you have it experts master 15:45 their craft through years of purposeful 15:47 practice 15:48 towards something they believe is worth 15:50 doing very very well 15:52 they develop systematic plans for 15:54 developing small chunks of knowledge and 15:57 skills 15:58 that they build on to step by step 16:00 create the vast body of knowledge and 16:02 skills 16:03 that puts them head and shoulders above 16:05 the rest 16:06 and when we see experts do what they do 16:09 seemingly 16:09 so effortlessly think of yo-yo ma 16:12 playing the cello 16:14 it's easy to attribute their mastery of 16:16 their craft as being the result of 16:18 natural talent 16:19 because we don't see how hard they 16:21 worked for so many years 16:22 with so much discipline to develop the 16:25 talent they have that now looks 16:27 natural so now you know a lot more about 16:30 expertise than you did just a few hours 16:32 ago 16:33 i'll leave you with these questions 16:35 first for you personally 16:37 what expertise is worth investing years 16:40 of mindful deliberate practice in 16:42 to become an expert in that area second 16:45 if you don't want to become a 16:47 world-class expert how can you use what 16:49 you 16:50 learned in this session to help you 16:52 achieve your goals 16:54 thanks for watching and learning about 16:56 expertise