Gladwell's 10K-Hour Rule & Our 80K Hour Career...

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Mark Myette, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

“PRACTICE DOES NOT MAKE PERFECT. ONLY PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.” VINCE LOMBARDI, FOOTBALL COACH

For the past decade or so many have heard and latched onto the “10000-Hour Rule”, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. In his book “Outliers: The Story of Success”, Gladwell asserted people who were performing at a world-class level, such as musicians, artists, or sportspeople, had practiced for approximately 10000 hours.

Many jumped to the conclusion if you wanted to become one of the best in the world, all you had to do was practice for 10000 hours. Gladwell’s book became inspiration for parent(s) wanting their babies to become the next “Tiger”, “Brady”, Jobs, or fill-in-blank for whom the parent(s) idolized.

Ironically, AFTER the book was published and reached BEST SELLER status, the authors behind the original study which Gladwell based his book claimed his interpretation wasn’t accurate.

This has implications for anyone focusing to develop a skill and expertise, whether in the arts, business, sports, or any other field. For those of us in the midst of our 80000 Hour Career Journey, it sheds some light into how we should view our 80000 journey.

For 80000 Hour Career Context, SEE:

- Maslow & the 80000 Hour Career Journey…
- Career Clock Management According to Belichick…

The Study Gladwell Used…

Anders Ericsson, Ralf Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Römer published the results of a study of a group of violin students in a music academy in Berlin, Germany. It stated that the most accomplished students had put in an average of 10000 hours of practice by their 20th birthday.

Problems With How Gladwell Applied the Study…

Problem 1: The number 10000 was chosen arbitrarily…

According to Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer, there is nothing special or magical about 10000 hours. Gladwell could just as easily have mentioned the average amount of time the best violin students had practiced by the time they were 18 (approximately 7400 hours) but he chose to refer to the total practice time they had accumulated by the time they were 20.

For context, pianists who win international piano competitions tend to do so when they’re ~30 years old, and as a result, they’ve probably put in about 20000 – 25000 hours of practice by then – FAR surpassing 10000 hour rule.

Problem 2: 10000 hours was only the average…

10000 hours at age 20 for the best violinists was only an average. Half of the 10 violinists in that group hadn’t actually accumulated 10000 hours at that age. Gladwell misunderstood this fact and incorrectly claimed that all the violinists in that group had accumulated over 10000 hours.

Other studies have shown that most artists don’t begin to produce their best work until they have been working on their craft for at least 10 years, or 20000 hours.

Finally, here is the piece of information that may have the biggest impact for people in pursuit of developing their skills…

Problem 3: Practice itself isn’t enough…

“Practice does NOT make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” Vince Lombardi, Football Coach

Gladwell didn’t distinguish between the type of practice the musicians in the study did – a very specific sort of practice referred to as “DELIBERATE practice” and any sort of activity that might be labeled “practice.” Deliberate practice involves constantly pushing oneself BEYOND one’s comfort zone – following training activities designed by a coach / expert / third party to develop specific abilities, and using feedback to identify flaws and focus on them.

Breakthrough #1…

This is where we get to the crux of what makes some people improve faster than others. Deliberate practice is about being completely honest with yourself about what you need to improve, finding the best ways to actually achieve that improvement, and then actually executing that practice even if it is challenging and uncomfortable.

It is also all about pushing yourself beyond your comfort barriers for a specific purpose because that is where you see the greatest gains. If you just “spend time practicing,” by spending time doing a task, you will not improve as quickly as you would if you focused on what you want to achieve in that time practicing – it will only make your brain more fixed in using those neural pathways and make it less flexible.

Problem 4: Practice on WEAKER talents will net LESS productive results…

Gladwell, Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer did not distinguish about the gifts, talents, skills of those being studied. It would appear (although not confirmed) those being studied / referenced in the study were people who were identified as “gifted” in their endeavor. So, should people assume if you practice hard at whatever, you will achieve exponential results? No.

What does this all mean for you and me?

Breakthrough #2…

Don’t be alarmed! While this evidence suggests it might be hard to become one of the world’s best performers, most of us are not dedicated or have the resources to becoming world-beaters. For most of us, we want to know WHAT we can improve enough to see ourselves become better and feel like we are achieving something in our human endeavors – whether it be in our job, career, or hobbies. It’s a lot about how we “show up” as we lean in on our gifts.

So, What Are the Lessons?

Lesson 1: Practice DELIBERATELY!

You will improve significantly faster at whatever you are trying to practice if you practice DELIBERATELY. Any area of human endeavor – academics, arts, business, engineering, mathematics, science, sports et.al. – people have a tremendous capacity to improve their performance, as long as they practice / train / work the right way.

It is very important to differentiate between the amount of time required to become extremely good at something, to become a master at something, and to become the world’s best at something. Even if you practice for only 100’s of hours, you will almost certainly see improvement…yet, you have only scratched the surface. You can keep going and going and going, getting better and better and better. How much you improve is up to you AND your ability(s).

Lesson 2: Practice DELIBERATELY while leaning in Your Gifts!

For my readers, this in not new. For everyone else, here’s my mantra! G X P = S. Translated, it looks like this: GIFTS X PASSION = STRENGTH.

Assuming the gifts are truly gifts – they set you apart – it allows you to excel and achieve results where the mere mortal can’t. The results realized are exponential! If that seems far-fetched realize there are millions of people achieving extraordinary things EVERY DAY in any number of callings. Their secret is they have discovered their GIFTS and are “leaning in” on them to accomplish their goals. YOU, your loved ones, and team can expect the same.

Case-in-point

There was a study to determine the impact of teaching speed reading to average readers – whose average reading efficiency was 90 words per minute (WPM) and already-proficient readers – 300 WPM. Intuitively, most (including the researchers) surmised the group that would realize the best results were the average readers. Although the average readers achieved a modest improvement – they went from 90 to 150 (WPM) – the results for the already proficient readers surprised everyone. This group went from being able to read 300 WPM to 2900. Why? G X P = Strengths! (Source: Clifton, D.O. & Harter, J.K. (2003) Investing in Strengths.)

In this case, the proficient readers already loved to read and were good at it! So, when given an opportunity to improve their skill to read faster – they invested in learning how, practiced and achieved their exponential results.

For more details / examples, SEE: Passion Is OK But It’s Not All of It! Just Ask Tim Tebow…

Lesson 3: Apply Lessons 1 & 2 toward your job, career, team, company!

Now back to the 80000 Career…how can we best apply these findings? Simply put…it will be about understanding, appreciating and leaning in on people’s gifts…​

IF…

- You are the motivated employee, you need to appreciate your gifts and focus on enhancing them with an open mind AND disciplined approach to improve.

- You are the insightful manager, you should apply this to how you manage your team! Apply DELIBERATIVE coaching to each of your team members!

- You are the visionary leader, your focus should be on creating / nurturing the vision and culture where the company’s appreciation, focus and resources are applied toward gifts DAILY.

Identify, coach-to-enhance, appreciate gifts, talents, skills and FOCUS on enhancing those in DELIBERATIVE practice you WILL achieve exponential results. ​

My best in your quest.

Mark
www.WhatAreYourGifts.com
​I believe each of us is a gift. I create trusted relationships where individuals, teams and leaders NAME, CLAIM and AIM their gifts to achieve optimum ​performance.