Last week, as I often do, I mentioned Peter Drucker. Forever, there has been this war between science and art. That is to say, when it comes to things like business, people debate whether it is a science or an art.
I think the debate is silly. Business is not just a science and it is not just an art. Business can be both an art and a science. It all depends on the skills you choose to bring to bear.
Drucker would say that business is about practice. That might sound kind of weird coming from the man of invented the "science" of management. Actually, though Drucker codified the principles of management, he did not view management as a science.
Drucker said that business deals with people. As such, management (business) belongs in the humanities, which makes it a science. However, due to its wide-ranging nature, Drucker saw business as a liberal art. In all, to Peter's way of thinking, management is really a practice. Hence the name of his book.
Let me ask you this, have you ever known someone is all talk and no action? Do you know anybody with great potential but it does not translate into performance? Have you ever asked yourself why that is?
Drucker said the only thing that closes the gap between potential and performance, is practice. However, practice is something of a taboo subject.
Sure, children are supposed to practice. I mean, we all know the joke about practice being the way to Carnegie Hall. But, adults, adults have already learned skills. Adults do not need to practice. Do they?
Fortunately, these days there is a lot of talk about the subject of practice. Especially, now that we are in the age of information. Because the age of information has led to the need for knowledge workers (a phrase coined by Drucker himself.)
"Training" seems to be the more adult word that we use. However, when you think about it, training is a form of practicing.
Having died in 2005, I do not know how well Drucker knew the work of Anders Ericsson. Professor Ericsson is down at Florida State University, and he is considered the world's leading expert on experts.
Ericsson has only written academic work. I do not know of a mass-produced book written by Anders. But, that is okay. As it turns out, one thing the world's expert performers all have in common is that they practice. A lot.
As mundane as it may sound, there is a direct correlation between amount of practice and level of performance. This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Indeed, as I have mentioned, Drucker put it in the title of his 1954 book.
The thing I want to mention, today, is that not all practice is created equal. Doing something, over and over, hoping to get better, is one form of practice. However, Professor Ericsson has identified another form of practice. Something he calls "Deliberate Practice."
Deliberate practice is about stretching yourself and your skills. For this reason, it is hard work. It is not comfortable. Because, like we have all heard, success lies outside your comfort zone.
In order that you might engineer more deliberate practice into your day, here are the six elements of deliberate practice:
1. It is designed to improve performance
2. It is repeated a lot
3. Feedback on results is continuously available
4. It is highly demanding mentally
5. It is hard
6. It requires (good) goals
One thing Peter Drucker was dogmatic about was that jobs/work must allow the worker to achieve. Drucker would counsel each of us to always strive for excellence. The main benefits of striving for excellence were psychological. And, Drucker knew it.
Excellence can be different from expertise. Whereas expertise is a comparative judgment, personal excellence is more about becoming all that you can be. It is competing with yourself. And, whether you want to be world-class, or simply the best You, practice is the way you get there.
