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How to get better at the things you care about

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    Most of us go through life trying
    to do our best at whatever we do,
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    whether it's our job, family, school,
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    or anything else.
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    I feel that way. I try my best.
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    But some time ago, I came to a realization
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    that I wasn't getting much better
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    at the things I cared most about,
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    whether it was being a husband or a friend
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    or a professional or teammate,
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    and I wasn't improving
    much at those things
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    even though I was spending a lot of time
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    working hard at them.
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    I've since realized from conversations
    I've had and from research
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    that this stagnation, despite hard work,
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    turns out to be pretty common.
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    So I'd like to share with you
    some insights into why that is
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    and what we can all do about it.
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    What I've learned is that
    the most effective people
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    and teams in any domain
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    do something we can all emulate.
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    They go through life deliberately
    alternating between two zones:
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    the learning zone
    and the performance zone.
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    The learning zone is when
    our goal is to improve.
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    Then, we do activities
    designed for improvement,
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    concentrating on what
    we haven't mastered yet,
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    which means we have to expect
    to make mistakes,
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    knowing that we will learn from them.
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    That is very different from what we do
    when we're in our performance zone,
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    which is when our goal is to do something
    as best as we can, to execute.
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    Then, we concentrate
    on what we have already mastered
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    and we try to minimize mistakes.
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    Both of these zones
    should be part of our lives,
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    but being clear about when
    we want to be in each of them,
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    with what goal, focus, and expectations
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    helps us better perform
    and better improve.
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    The performance zone maximizes
    our immediate performance,
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    while the learning zone
    maximizes our growth
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    and our future performance.
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    The reason many of us don't improve much
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    despite our hard work
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    is that we tend to spend almost
    all of our time in the performance zone.
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    This hinders our growth,
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    and ironically, over the long term,
    also our performance.
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    So what does the learning zone look like?
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    Take Demosthenes, a political leader
    and the greatest orator
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    and lawyer in Ancient Greece.
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    To become great, he didn't spend
    all his time just being an orator
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    or a lawyer, which would be
    his performance zone.
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    But instead, he did activities
    designed for improvement.
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    Of course, he studied a lot.
    He studied law and philosophy
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    with guidance from mentors,
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    but he also realized that being a lawyer
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    involved persuading other people,
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    so he also studied great speeches
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    and acting.
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    To get rid of an odd habit he had
    of involuntarily lifting his shoulder,
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    he practiced his speeches
    in front of a mirror,
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    and he suspended a sword from the ceiling
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    so that if he raised his shoulder,
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    it would hurt.
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    (Laughter)
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    To speak more clearly despite a lisp,
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    he went through his speeches
    with stones in his mouth.
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    He built an underground room where
    he could practice without interruptions
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    and not disturb other people,
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    and since courts at the time
    were very noisy,
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    he also practiced by the ocean,
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    projecting his voice
    above the roar of the waves.
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    His activities in the learning zone
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    were very different
    from his activities in court,
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    his performance zone.
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    In the learning zone, he did
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    what Dr. Anders Erikson
    calls deliberate practice.
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    This involves breaking down
    abilities into component skills,
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    being clear about what subskill
    we're working to improve,
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    like keeping our shoulders down,
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    giving full concentration
    to a high level of challenge
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    outside our comfort zone,
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    just beyond what we can currently do,
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    using frequent feedback
    with repetition and adjustments,
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    and ideally engaging the guidance
    of a skilled coach,
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    because activities
    designed for improvement
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    are domain-specific,
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    and great teachers and coaches
    know what those activities are
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    and can also give us expert feedback.
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    It is this type of practice
    in the learning zone
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    which leads to substantial improvement,
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    not just time on task performing.
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    For example, research shows that
    after the first couple of years
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    working in a profession,
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    performance usually plateaus.
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    This has been shown to be true
    in teaching, general medicine,
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    nursing, and other fields,
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    and it happens because once we think
    we have become good enough,
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    adequate, then we stop spending time
    in the learning zone.
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    We focus all our time on
    just doing our job,
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    performing,
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    which turns out not to be
    a great way to improve.
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    But the people who continue
    to spend time in the learning zone
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    do continue to always improve.
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    The best salespeople at least once a week
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    do activities with
    the goal of improvement.
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    They read to extend their knowledge,
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    consult with colleagues or domain experts,
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    try out new strategies,
    solicit feedback, and reflect.
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    The best chess players
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    spend a lot of time
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    not playing games of chess,
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    which would be their performance zone,
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    but trying to predict the moves
    grandmasters made and analyzing them.
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    Each of us has probably spent
    many, many, many hours
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    typing on a computer
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    without getting faster,
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    but if we spent 10 to 20 minutes
    each day fully concentrating
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    on typing 10 to 20 percent faster
    than our current reliable speed,
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    we would get faster,
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    especially if we also identified
    what mistakes we're making
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    and practiced typing those words.
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    That's deliberate practice.
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    In what other parts of our lives,
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    perhaps that we care more about,
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    are we working hard
    but not improving much
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    because we're always
    in the performance zone?
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    Now, this is not to say
    that the performance zone has no value.
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    It very much does.
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    When I needed a knee surgery,
    I didn't tell the surgeon,
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    "Poke around in there
    and focus on what you don't know."
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    (Laughter)
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    "We'll learn from your mistakes!"
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    I looked for a surgeon
    who I felt would do a good job,
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    and I wanted her to do a good job.
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    Being in the performance zone
    allows us to get things done
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    as best as we can.
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    It can also be motivating,
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    and it provides us with information
    to identify what to focus on next
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    when we go back to the learning zone.
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    So the way to high performance
    is to alternate between
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    the learning zone
    and the performance zone,
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    purposefully building out skills
    in the learning zone,
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    then applying those skills
    in the performance zone.
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    When Beyonce is on tour,
    during the concert,
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    she's in her performance zone,
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    but every night when she gets
    back to the hotel room,
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    she goes right back into
    her learning zone.
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    She watches a video
    of the show that just ended.
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    She identifies opportunities
    for improvement, for herself,
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    her dancers, and her camera staff,
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    and the next morning,
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    everyone receives pages of notes
    with what to adjust,
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    which they then work on during the day
    before the next performance.
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    It's a spiral
    to ever-increasing capabilities,
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    but we need to know when we seek to learn,
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    and when we seek to perform,
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    and while we want to spend
    time doing both,
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    the more time we spend
    in the learning zone,
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    the more we'll improve.
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    So how can we spend
    more time in the learning zone?
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    First, we must believe and understand
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    that we can improve,
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    what we call a growth mindset.
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    Second, we must want to improve
    at that particular skill.
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    There has to be a purpose we care about,
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    because it takes time and effort.
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    Third, we must have an idea
    about how to improve,
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    what we can do to improve,
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    not how I used to practice
    the guitar as a teenager,
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    performing songs over and over again,
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    but doing deliberate practice.
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    And fourth, we must be
    in a low-stakes situation,
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    because if mistakes are to be expected,
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    then the consequence of make them
    must not be catastrophic,
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    or even very significant.
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    A tightrope walker doesn't practice
    new tricks without a net underneath,
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    and an athlete wouldn't set out
    to try a new move
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    during a championship match.
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    One reason that in our lives
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    we spend so much time in
    the performance zone
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    is that our environments often are,
    unnecessarily, high stakes.
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    We create social risks for one another,
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    even in schools which are supposed
    to be all about learning,
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    and I'm not talking about
    standardized tests.
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    I mean that every minute of every day,
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    many students in elementary schools
    through colleges
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    feel that if they make a mistake,
    others will think less of them.
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    No wonder they're always stressed out
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    and not taking the risks
    necessary for learning.
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    But they learn that
    mistakes are undesirable
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    inadvertently
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    when teachers or parents are eager
    to hear just correct answers
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    and reject mistakes rather than
    welcome and examine them
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    to learn from them,
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    or when we look for narrow responses
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    rather than encourage
    more exploratory thinking
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    that we can all learn from.
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    When all homework or student work
    has a number or a letter on it,
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    and counts towards a final grade,
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    rather than being used for practice,
    mistakes, feedback, and revision,
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    we send the message that school
    is a performance zone.
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    The same is true in our workplaces.
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    In the companies I consult with,
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    I often see flawless execution cultures
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    which leaders foster
    to encourage great work,
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    but that leads employees
    to stay within what they know
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    and not try new things,
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    so companies struggle
    to innovate and improve,
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    and they fall behind.
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    We can create more spaces for growth
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    by starting conversations with one another
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    about when we want to be in each zone.
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    What do we want to get better at,
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    and how?
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    And when do we want to execute
    and minimize mistakes?
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    That way, we gain clarity
    about what success is,
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    when, and how to best support one another.
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    But what if we find ourselves
    in a chronic high-stakes setting
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    and we feel we can't
    start those conversations yet?
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    And here are three things that
    we can still do as individuals.
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    First, we can create low-stakes islands
    in and otherwise high-stakes sea.
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    These are spaces where mistakes
    have little consequence.
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    For example, we might find a mentor
    or a trusted colleague
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    with whom we can exchange ideas
    or have vulnerable conversations
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    or even role play,
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    or we can ask for feedback-oriented meetings as projects progress.
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    Or we can set aside time to read
    or watch videos or take online courses.
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    Those are just some examples.
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    Second, we can execute and perform
    as we're expected,
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    but then reflect on what we could
    do better next time,
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    like Beyonce does,
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    and we can observe and emulate experts.
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    The observation, reflection,
    and adjustment is a learning zone.
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    And finally, we can lead,
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    and lower the stakes for others
    by sharing what we want to get better at,
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    by asking questions
    about what we don't know,
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    by soliciting feedback
    and by sharing our mistakes
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    and what we've learned from them,
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    so that others can feel safe
    to do the same.
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    Real confidence is about modeling
    ongoing learning.
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    What if, instead of spending
    our lives doing, doing, doing,
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    performing, performing, performing,
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    we spent more time exploring,
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    asking,
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    listening,
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    experimenting, reflecting,
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    striving, and becoming?
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    What if we each always had something
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    we were working to improve?
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    What if we created more low-stakes islands
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    and waters?
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    And what if we got clear,
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    within ourselves and with our teammates,
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    about when we seek to learn
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    and when we seek to perform,
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    so that our efforts
    can be more consequential,
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    our improvement never-ending,
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    and our best even better?
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    Thank you.
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    (Applause)
Title:
How to get better at the things you care about
Speaker:
Eduardo Briceño
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
11:22

English subtitles

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