Notes on Influencer to Change Anything_6 pdf

After devoting his academic life tolearning why some individuals are better at certain tasks thanothers, Ericsson has been able to systematically demonstratethat people who climb to the

In this and many similar studies, Mischel followed the dren into adulthood He discovered that the ability to delay grat-ification had a more profound effect than many had originallypredicted Notwithstanding the fact that the researchers hadwatched the kids for only a few minutes, what they learned fromthe experiment was enormously telling Children who hadbeen able to wait for that second marshmallow matured intoadults who were seen as more socially competent, self-assertive,dependable, and capable of dealing with frustrations; and theyscored an average of 210 points higher on their SATs than peo-ple who gulped down the one marshmallow The predictivepower was truly remarkable.

chil-Companion studies conducted over the next decade withpeople of varying ages (including adults) confirmed that indi-viduals who exercise self-control achieve better outcomes thanpeople who don’t For example, if high schoolers are good atself-control, they experience fewer eating and drinking prob-lems University students with more self-control earn bettergrades, and married and working people have more fulfillingrelationships and better careers And as you might suspect,people who demonstrate low levels of self-control show higherlevels of aggression, delinquency, health problems, and soforth

Apparently, Mischel had stumbled onto the mother lode ofpersonality traits Kids who had been blessed with the innatecapacity to withstand short-term temptations fared betterthroughout their entire lives The fact that a four-year-old’s one-time response to a sugary confection predicts lifelong results is

at once exciting and depressing—depending on whether youare a “grabber” or a “delayer.” You’re either well fitted to take

on the temptations of the world or doomed to a lifelong fate ofenjoy now, pay later—as might well be the lot of our friendHenry

But is this what’s really going on in these studies? Are somepeople wired to succeed and others to fail?

One thing was clear from these studies: The ability to delaygratification did predict a large number of long-term results.That part of the marshmallow research nobody was arguingabout However, for years scientists continued to debate thecause of this strong effect Did self-control stem from anintractable personality characteristic or something more mal-leable and thus learnable?

In 1965, Dr Mischel collaborated on a study with Albert

Bandura who openly challenged the assumption that will was

a fixed trait Always a student of human learning, Banduraworked with Mischel to design an experiment to test the sta-bility of subjects who had delayed gratification In an experi-ment similar to the marshmallow studies, the two scholarsobserved fourth- and fifth-graders in similar circumstances.They placed children who had not demonstrated that theycould delay gratification into contact with adult role modelswho knew how to delay The greedy kids observed adults whoput their heads down for a nap or who got up from the chairand engaged in some distracting activity The original “grab-bers” saw techniques for delaying gratification And to every-one’s delight, they followed suit

After a single exposure to an adult model, children who viously hadn’t delayed suddenly became stars at delaying Evenmore interesting, in follow-up studies conducted months later,

pre-the children who had learned to delay retained much of what

they’d learned during the brief modeling session So whatabout those hardwired genetic characteristics or traits that hadpredicted so much?

The answer to this important question is good news to all

of us and most certainly offers hope to Henry When Mischeltook a closer look at individuals who routinely held out forthe greater reward, he concluded that delayers are simply

more skilled at avoiding short-term temptations They didn’t

merely avoid the temptation; they employed specific, learnabletechniques that kept their attention off what would be merely

short-term gratification and on their long-term goal of earningthat second marshmallow.

So maybe Henry can learn how to delay gratification—if

he learns tactics that will help him do so But will that beenough to transform him into the physically fit person he’d like

to become? After all, he’s not good at jogging or weight liftingeither In fact, he’s horrible at all things athletic Surely factors

as hardwired as body type, lung capacity, and musculature arepredictors of good athletic performance Henry has no hope ofever becoming one of those chiseled hunks you see hangingout at health clubs Or does he?

MUCH OF PROWESS IS PRACTICE

Psychologist Anders Ericsson offers an interesting tation of how those at the top of their game get there Hedoesn’t believe for a second that elite-level performance stemsfrom zodiacal forces or, for that matter, from enhanced men-tal or physical properties After devoting his academic life tolearning why some individuals are better at certain tasks thanothers, Ericsson has been able to systematically demonstratethat people who climb to the top of just about any field eclipse

interpre-their peers through something as basic as deliberate practice.

We’ve all heard the old saw that practice doesn’t make

per-fect, perfect practice makes perfect Ericsson has spent his life

proving this to be true While most people believe that they areborn with inherent limits to their athletic ability, Ericsson arguesthat there is little evidence that people who achieve exceptionalperformance ever get there through any means other than care-

fully guided practice—perfect practice His research

demon-strates that prowess, excellence, elite status—call it what youlike—is not a matter of genetic gifts; it’s a matter of knowing how

to enhance your skills through deliberate practice.

For instance, Ericsson describes how dedicated figureskaters practice differently on the ice: Olympic hopefuls work

on skills they have yet to master Club skaters, in contrast, work

on skills they’ve already mastered Amateurs tend to spend half

of their time at the rink chatting with friends and not ing at all Put simply, skaters who spend the same number ofhours on the ice achieve very different results because theypractice in very different ways In Ericsson’s research, this find-ing has held true for every skill imaginable, including memo-rizing complex lists, playing chess, excelling at the violin, andconquering every extant sporting skill It also applies to morecomplex interactions such as giving speeches, getting alongwith others, and holding emotional, sensitive, or high-stakesconversations

practic-Before we move on, let’s take care to avoid a very large anddangerous trap The fact that improvements in performancecome through deliberate practice makes all the sense in theworld when it comes to activities such as figure skating, play-ing chess, and mastering the violin However, few people, ifany, would think of practicing with a coach to learn how to getalong with coworkers, motivate team members to improvetheir quality measures, emotionally connect with a troubledteen, or talk to a physician about a medical error Most of usdon’t even think that soft and gushy interpersonal skills aresomething you need to study at all, let alone something you’dstudy and practice with a coach

But that’s precisely what should be going on Consider acommon problem at hospitals A surgeon has just committed

a medical error While performing a mastectomy, she’s dentally ripped a tiny muscle guarding the patient’s chest cav-ity The anesthesiologist sees a gauge jump, so it appears as ifone lung is no longer taking in air Two of the nurses assistingthe operation see similar signs of distress If the medical teamdoesn’t start corrective action soon, the patient could die Butbefore this happens, either the surgeon needs to take respon-sibility or one of the other professionals needs to raise analarm

acci-Let’s focus on staff members who are assisting and predictwhat they might do Most would certainly hesitate for a few sec-onds before suggesting that the surgeon has just made a mis-take They’ll hesitate because if they don’t handle the situationwell, they’ll come off as flippant or even insubordinate Thereare legal issues at play, and that only makes the discussion thatmuch more delicate Worse still, they’ve seen colleagueswho’ve expressed a concern, turned out to be wrong, and thenreceived a tongue-lashing Better to let someone else take therisk Precious seconds continue to pass.

This and tens of thousands of similar medical errors tinue to happen because individuals who may have practiceddrawing blood or moving a patient or reading a gauge dozens

con-of times haven’t studied and practiced how to confront a league—or even more frightening—a physician They aren’texactly sure what to say and how to say it They certainly lackthe confidence that comes from having practiced

col-Of course, health care isn’t the only field in which a lack

of interpersonal know-how has caused serious problems Everytime a boss expresses a half-baked, even dangerous, idea andsubordinates bite their tongues for fear of being chastised,good ideas remain a secret and teams make bad decisions.Speaking up to an authority figure requires skill, and skillrequires practice The same is true for confronting a mentallyabusive spouse or dealing with a bully at school or—here’s ahot one—just saying no to drugs Try that without gettingridiculed or beat up Interpersonal interactions can be extra-ordinarily complicated, and most will improve only after indi-viduals receive instruction that includes deliberate practice.Consider the problem Dr Wiwat Rojanapithayakorn facedwhen attempting to encourage young, poor, shy, female sexworkers to deny services to older, richer male customers if thecustomers refused to use a condom At first the young girlsmumbled their disapproval, only to be intimidated by theirvocal clients Not knowing what to say or how to say it, they’d

quickly give in and put themselves and thousands of others

at risk

Eventually Wiwat asked more seasoned sex workers to trainyoung girls on how to defend their health They shared actualscripts that helped them avoid offending the customer while atthe same time holding a firm line Equally important, theyoung women actually practiced the conversation until theyhad gained confidence in what they were going to say and howthey would say it They continued to practice and receive feed-back until they had mastered their scripts well enough to actu-ally use them at work In this particular case, providing detailedcoaching and feedback helped compliance with the strict con-dom code rise from 14 percent to 90 percent in just a fewyears—saving millions of lives

Many of the profound and persistent problems we face stemmore from a lack of skill (which in turn stems from a lack ofdeliberate practice) than from a genetic curse, a lack of courage,

or a character flaw Self-discipline, long viewed as a charactertrait, and elite performance, similarly linked to genetic gifts,stem from the ability to engage in guided practice of clearlydefined skills Learn how to practice the right actions, and youcan master everything from withstanding the temptations ofchocolate to holding an awkward discussion with your boss

PERFECT COMPLEX SKILLS

Let’s return to a point we made earlier Not all practice is goodpractice That’s why many of the tasks we perform at work and

at home suffer from “arrested development.” With simple taskssuch as typing, driving, golf, and tennis, we reach our highestlevel of proficiency after about 50 hours of practice; then ourperformance skills become automated We’re able to executethem smoothly and with minimal effort, but further develop-ment stops We assume we’ve reached our highest performancelevel and don’t think to learn new and better methods

With some tasks, we stop short of our highest level of ficiency on purpose The calculus we perform in our heads sug-gests that the added effort it’ll take to find and learn somethingnew will probably yield a diminishing marginal return, so westop learning For instance, we learn how to make use of a wordprocessor or Web server by mastering the most common moves,but we never learn many of the additional features that woulddramatically improve our ability

pro-This same pattern of arresting our development appliedover an entire career yields fairly unsatisfactory results Forexample, most professionals progress until they reach an

“acceptable” level, and then they plateau Software engineers,for instance, usually reach their peak somewhere around fiveyears after entering the workforce Beyond this level of medi-ocrity, further improvements are not correlated to years ofwork in the field

So what does create improvement? According to Dr Anders

Ericsson, improvement is related not just to practice, but to a

particular kind of practice—something Ericsson calls deliberate practice Ericsson has found that no matter the field of exper-

tise, when it comes to elite status, there is no correlation soever between time in the profession and performance levels.The implications are stunning A 20-year-veteran brainsurgeon is not likely to be any more skilled than a 5-year rookie

what-by virtue of time on the job Any difference between the twowould have nothing to do with experience and everything to

do with deliberate practice Time is required (most elite formers in fields such as music composition, dance, science,fiction writing, chess, and basketball have put in 10 or moreyears), but it is not the critical variable for mastery The criti-

per-cal factor is using time wisely It’s the skill of practice that makes

perfect

Most of us already have all the evidence we need to firm that deliberate practice can have an enormous effect onperformance levels Just look at what’s happened to our capac-

con-ity to teach everything from mathematics to high jumping.Roger Bacon once said that it would take a person 30 to 40years to master calculus—the same calculus that is taught inmost high schools today Today’s musicians routinely matchand even surpass the technical virtuosity of legendary musicians

of the past And when it comes to sports, the records just keepfalling For example, when Johnny Weissmuller of Tarzanfame won his five Olympic gold medals in swimming in 1924,

nobody expected that years later high school kids would post

better times

What, then, is deliberate practice? And how can we applythe techniques to our vital behaviors and thus strengthen ourinfluence strategy?

Demand Full Attention for Brief Intervals

Deliberate practice requires complete attention Deliberatepractice doesn’t allow for daydreaming, functioning on autopi-lot, or only partially putting one’s mind into the routine Itrequires steely-eyed concentration as students watch exactlywhat they’re doing, what is working, what isn’t, and why

This ability to concentrate is often viewed by students astheir most difficult challenge, enough so that elite musiciansand athletes argue that maintaining their concentration is usu-ally the limiting factor to deliberate practice Most can main-tain a heightened level of concentration for only an hourstraight, usually during the morning when their minds arefresh Across a wide range of disciplines, the total daily prac-tice time of elite performers rarely exceeds five hours a day, andthis only if students take naps and sleep longer than normal

Provide Immediate Feedback Against a Clear Standard

The number of hours one spends practicing a skill is far lessimportant than receiving clear and frequent feedback against

a known standard For example, serious chess players spendabout four hours a day comparing their play to the publishedplay of the world’s best players They make their best move, andthen compare it to the move the expert made When theirmove is different from the master’s, they pause to determinewhat the expert saw and they missed As a result of comparingthemselves to the best, students improve their skills muchfaster than they would otherwise This immediate feedback,coupled with complete concentration, accelerates learning.Players know quickly when they are off course, and they learnfrom their own poor moves.

As you might imagine, sports stars require rapid feedback

to improve performance as well They tend to focus on smallbut vital aspects of their play and scrupulously compare oneround to the next Swimming gold medalist Natalie Coughlincompletes each leg of her races with fewer strokes than heropponents, giving her a tremendous advantage in stamina Herpractice is focused on the minute details of each stroke Sheexplains: “You’re constantly manipulating the water The slight-est change in pitch in your hand makes the biggest difference.”

At the conclusion of each lap, Natalie is acutely aware of thenumber of strokes she took to complete it, and she adjusts herhand position for the next lap This kind of focused, deliber-ate practice enhances performance more rapidly than doesmerely swimming laps

This concept of rapid feedback stands traditional teachingmethods on their heads Many teachers believe that tests arepainful experiences that should be given as infrequently as pos-sible so as not to discourage students Research reveals that theopposite is true Ethna Reid taught us that one of the vitalbehaviors for effective teachers is extremely short intervalsbetween teaching and testing When testing comes frequently,

it becomes familiar It’s no longer a dreaded, major event Itprovides the chance for people to see how well they’re doingagainst the standard

Think about how deliberate practice with clear feedbackcompares with the way we currently train our leaders Rarely

do business school and management faculties think of ship as a performance art Faculty members typically teachleaders how to think, not how to act So when would-be exec-utives take MBA courses or graduate executives attend leader-ship training, they’re routinely asked to read cases, applyalgorithms, and the like, but there’s a good chance that they’llnever be asked to practice anything

leader-Granted, business schools typically offer a course in givingpresentations and speeches where the performance compo-nents that students are asked to practice are so obvious But this

is not the case with other important leadership skills, such asaddressing controversial topics, confronting bad behavior,building coalitions, running a meeting, disagreeing withauthority figures, or influencing behavior change—all of whichcall for specific behaviors, and all of which can and must belearned through deliberate practice

Break Mastery into Mini Goals

Let’s add another dimension to deliberate practice We startwith a test How would you motivate patients to take pills thatone day might prevent them from experiencing a stroke? Ifthey’ve already had one stroke, you’d think it would be easy toget them to take the lifesaving pills But let’s add a confound-ing factor The pills often cause leg cramps, painful rashes, loss

of energy, constipation, headaches, and sexual dysfunction Sopatients take a pill, and they will most assuredly suffer short-term results, but maybe they won’t have a stroke sometime wayout in the future This is going to be a hard sell In fact, for yearsmany stroke patients didn’t take their pills because they didn’tlike the odds

This all changed when researchers stopped focusing onlong-term goals (avoiding another stroke) and created a regimen