Is Talent Overrated?

“People who do the common things in this life uncommonly well will command the attention of the world!” --George Washington Carver

My friend recently mentioned that she had read this book called "Talent is Overrated" where the author proposes that people are not necessarily born with a specific talent, some may have a physical advantage (such as height in the game of basketball) but for the most part a person's talent is the result of hard work, perseverance, and 10,000 hours of practice in the least.

Talent is the natural ability to do something better than most people can do it. This ability is fairly specific, it's innate, you are born with it, and if you are not born with it, you can't acquire it.

Based on this definition, author Geoff Colvin argues that Tiger Woods was not born with an innate ability to play golf. Tiger's father put a baby size putter in Tiger's hand at the age of seven months, propped him in a high chair in the garage and entertained him for hours by hitting golf balls into a net. By age four Tiger was taking golf lessons under professional teachers and played his first international competition at the Walker Cup after seventeen years of intense practice. Colvin goes on say that when asked about Tiger's phenomenal ability to play golf, both father and son cite the same reason: hard work.

The kind of intense practice that Colvin refers to in his book is not just a routine repetition of the same act over and over again but rather what he calls deliberate practice. Deliberate practice, a term coined by Anders Ericsson is characterized by several elements. It is activity designed specifically to improve performance, often with a teacher's help; it can be repeated a lot; continuous feedback on results is available; it's highly demanding mentally; and it isn't much fun.

I know you've zeroed in on the last point. Deliberate practice is no fun. Colvin explains that the reason it's no fun even though it's an activity you generally enjoy doing is because in deliberate practice you intentionally seek out what you don't do well and keep trying to improve it rather than continually practicing what you already do well. The good news about deliberate practice is that it's difficult, which means most people won't do it. So if you are willing to do it, it will distinguish you from the rest all the more.

So how would one apply the principles of deliberate practice to an organization? Here Colvin talks about the principles of great performance. He admonishes that the global economy, the move from financial capital to human capital has left no place for subpar performers to hide.

The primary principle of great performance within an organization is a true commitment to developing people by:
--understanding that each person in the organization is not just doing a job, but is also being stretched and grown
--finding ways to develop leaders within their jobs
--understanding the critical role of teachers and feedback
--identifying promising performers early
--understanding that people development works best through inspiration, not authority
--making leadership development part of the culture.

A great organization consists of great performers. And great performers have one key characteristic, passion. They are intrinsically motivated. When creative people are focused on solving a problem, the focus is the solution and not what the solution will do for them personally. Extrinsic motivators also play an important role in great performance. Not all work is creative all the time, rote work like documentation, accounting, communication, etc is not exciting or enticing but still needs to be done. In this case extrinsic motivators can go a long way in keeping people motivated.

According to Colvin, organizations typically fail at motivating their employees because they are prescriptive. You are assigned a project, you rarely ever have an opportunity to select your own project. Feedback is rarely constructive, nonthreatening, and work-focused. It tends to be personal and accusatory.

In conclusion, Colvin has tried to create a link between deliberate practice, great performance, creativity, passion and ultimately accomplishment. On a personal level he has provided some models for deliberate practice that are worth looking into.

From a software perspective I came across an interesting application of deliberate practice. Mark Needham, a software developer writes on his blog about the possibility of using design coding dojo sessions to deliberately practice good coding techniques. According to Needham "areas of practice for future coding dojos could be: Refactoring a code base, using tiny types, coding in a functional way, and so on." An interesting thought...

We would love to hear your thoughts on talent, practice, deliberate practice, design coding dojo sessions or any other concept you find interesting in this review.