Productivity, Excellence and Giftedness
Gregorio Billikopf
University of California
Ed. This piece was originally posted on HRNET by Gregorio Billikopf of the University of California. It has some excellent thoughts, but even more important it’s a great stimulus for thinking and discussion around many HR, training, performance and learning issues. Gregorio has kind given permission to reprint here on our blog. Also added in the reply section is Robert Bacal’s reply, also from HRNET.
Over the last week I have had a very stimulating conversation with a renowned physician and pathologist, Oliver Stanton, and Anders Ericsson, author of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) paper, “The making of an Expert.”1 The HBR article centers on the old question, “Are gifted people—or those who succeed in a field—born or made?” This has been the question employers have asked over the years. Can I, they ask. Train my weaker employees by putting them alongside the best to bring them up to the level of these outstandi΅g employees? Anders Eriΰsson et al suggest that indeed there are differῥnces in giftednesῳ, but that for the most part exerts and giftῥd performers are made, not born. In their paper they introduce three concepts that I wish to share here: 1) the importance of deliberate practice, 2) the avoidance of creeping intuition and 3) tῨe value of providing excῥllent coaches.
Anders has found that behind excellence there is almost always a lot of practice. He uses the expression deliberate practice because it is one thing to rehearse what one has already conquered, but deliberate practice involves working on those areas that do not come so effortlessly. For those truly seeking to excel, the paper recommends two hours per day of such focused practice. Many incorrectly come to think that these gifts just fall on peoples laps. One sportsman explained that people perceive him as a natural golfer, but what they do not see are the endless hours of practice that often yielded bloody hands. Many interesting examples are given from the fields of sport, literature, music and chess. Practice is especially productive under the eyes of the right coach, they argue persuasively. I would add that deliberate practice through introspection and self-learning is an important complement to having an excellent coach.
The second concept, creeping intuition, is the refusal of those who excel to automatically classify new information as something they have already seen before. Individuals who avoid the creeping intuition trap do not allow themselves to think they have already learned what there is to learn. Such successful individuals are constantly trying to improve and think of new possibilities. They do not fall into a rut.
Let us return to the question, “Are gifted people born or made? Is it enough for managers to get the right training? Without a doubt, better and more focused training will be of great help. Three decades ago I worked with a number of Junior Colleges and helped them introduce welding and mechanics training for farm workers. We used an individualized training metῨod which permitted participants to learn and progress at their own pace and become so outstandingdespite their limited formal educationthat one of the long time college instructors declared that these workers as a whole had outperformed his previous students. I have been conducting quality control studies along with a number ofᾠcolleagues in Chile. The results will permit us to help individuals to focus, through deliberate practice, on the type of plant or fruit defects that are difficult to identifyat both the group and individual level. These same principles can be applied to
non-agricultural jobs.
My own perspective on the topic of giftedness, productivity and excellence goes along these lines: There are great differences in individual productivity and these follow a normal distribution curve. My studies show that the best crew worker is typically capable of working 4 to 8 times faster than the worst in the same crew. Oliver Stanton shared data with me from his own pathology lab that confirms these numbers outside of agriculture. Differences in capability and productivity include ability to discern issues of quality, not just faster work. I am a great believer in job sample tests for all applicants, regardless of the job. Continue reading →
