Practice Perfect

Key Takeaways

1. Practice makes permanent, not perfect: Focus on encoding success

Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.

Encode success. When practicing, it's crucial to focus on getting it right rather than just repeating actions. Incorrect practice can ingrain bad habits, making them harder to correct later. To ensure effective practice:

• Design practice activities with a high success rate
• Constantly check for mastery and adjust complexity as needed
• Focus on the "fastest possible correct version" or "most complex right version possible"

Avoid romanticizing failure. While struggle can build character, it's not the most efficient way to develop skills. Instead, create practice environments that allow participants to experience and repeat success, building confidence and competence simultaneously.

2. Identify and practice the vital 20% that yields 80% of results

Being great at the most important things is more important than being good at more things that are merely useful.

Focus on key skills. Apply the 80/20 rule to practice by identifying and concentrating on the 20% of skills that drive 80% of results. This approach maximizes the impact of practice time and effort. To implement this strategy:

• Use data or expert consensus to identify critical skills
• Spend more time practicing these vital few skills than all others combined
• Continue practicing key skills even after achieving proficiency to reach excellence

Remember that the vital 20% may change over time, so periodically reassess which skills are most crucial for success in your field. By focusing on mastering these essential skills, you can achieve disproportionate results and stand out in your profession.

3. Let the mind follow the body: Automate skills to unlock creativity

Creativity often comes about because the mind has been set free in new and heretofore encumbered situations.

Automate fundamentals. By practicing skills to the point of automaticity, you free up mental capacity for higher-order thinking and creativity. This synergy between rote learning and creative thinking is often underappreciated. To harness this power:

• Practice fundamental skills until they become second nature
• Build layers of automated skills to handle complex tasks effortlessly
• Look for opportunities to automate more advanced skills, not just basics

As you develop automaticity in key areas, you'll find that your mind is free to engage in more creative and strategic thinking during performance. This principle applies across various fields, from sports to music to professional pursuits.

4. Replace vague purposes with clear, measurable objectives

When an objective is made first, before the activity, it guides you in choosing or adapting your activities. When it comes second, after you decide what you'll do, it is a justification.

Set precise goals. Effective practice requires clear, measurable objectives rather than vague purposes. This shift in approach ensures that practice activities are focused and productive. When setting objectives:

• Make them manageable and achievable within the available time
• Ensure they are measurable, allowing you to assess progress
• Include mastery guidance—specific points to focus on for correct execution
• Create objectives before planning activities, not as afterthoughts

By setting clear objectives, you provide a roadmap for practice sessions and increase the likelihood of meaningful improvement. This approach also allows for better evaluation of progress and adjustment of practice strategies as needed.

5. Differentiate between drill and scrimmage for effective practice

Use drills to distort the game and focus intensively on development of one or several skills.

Purposeful practice design. Understanding the difference between drills and scrimmages is crucial for effective practice. Each serves a distinct purpose:

Drills:

• Isolate specific skills for focused improvement
• Allow for higher repetition and targeted feedback
• Can be designed to emphasize particular aspects of performance

Scrimmages:

• Replicate game conditions for evaluation and final preparation
• Help assess overall readiness and skill integration
• Provide opportunities to practice decision-making in context

While scrimmages have their place, drills often provide more efficient skill development. Design practice sessions that use both approaches strategically, with a heavier emphasis on drills for skill acquisition and refinement.

6. Use modeling and feedback to accelerate skill development

When feedback is given, it's often the starting point of a discussion. This in turn often crowds out action.

Action-oriented feedback. Effective practice combines clear modeling with immediate application of feedback. To maximize the impact of feedback:

• Provide specific, actionable feedback focused on solutions
• Encourage immediate application of feedback rather than extended discussion
• Use video and other tools to provide precise models of desired performance

When giving feedback:

1. Summarize the key points
2. Ask the recipient to prioritize and identify next steps
3. Have them implement changes immediately

This approach ensures that feedback leads to tangible improvements rather than getting lost in discussion. By combining clear models with actionable feedback, you can significantly accelerate skill development.

7. Create a culture that normalizes error and encourages practice

What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.

Embrace productive failure. Building a culture that normalizes error and values practice is crucial for continuous improvement. To foster this environment:

• Encourage calculated risk-taking in practice settings
• Respond to errors supportively while insisting on correction
• Help performers identify and address their own mistakes

Address barriers to practice by:

• Identifying and naming common obstacles
• Providing opportunities for private practice when needed
• Making practice activities engaging and even fun

By creating a safe space for experimentation and learning from mistakes, you encourage innovation and faster skill development across your organization.

8. Hire for practice potential and coachability

We would rather have a level-six teacher (on a scale of ten) who has the potential to skyrocket than a level-eight teacher who will have a slower learning curve and potentially be resistant to practice and feedback.

Value growth mindset. When hiring, prioritize candidates who demonstrate a willingness to practice and improve over those who may initially appear more skilled but are resistant to feedback. Look for:

• Openness to feedback and eagerness to implement suggestions
• Ability to reflect on and learn from mistakes
• Enthusiasm for continuous learning and skill development

During the hiring process:

• Include practice tasks in interviews
• Observe how candidates respond to and incorporate feedback
• Assess their ability to improve through multiple iterations

By building a team of individuals committed to growth and practice, you create an organization with greater long-term potential for excellence and innovation.

9. Make new skills stick through post-practice strategies

If you want something to get done, measure it. And the simplest way to measure it is to observe it.

Follow-up is crucial. To ensure that skills developed in practice translate to real-world performance, implement strategic post-practice approaches:

1. Look for the right things:

2. Coach during performance:

3. Maintain ongoing dialogue:

4. Measure success:

By implementing these strategies, you create a continuous feedback loop that reinforces learning and ensures that practiced skills become ingrained habits, driving long-term performance improvement.

Last updated: March 21, 2025

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