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Most of those go through life
Trying to do our best at whatever we do
Whether it's our job
Family
School or anything else
I feel that way i try my best
But some time ago i came to irralization that i wasn't getting much better at the things
I cared most about whether it was being a husband or a friend or a professional or teammade
And
And i wasn't improving much those things
Even though i was spending a lot of time working hard at them have since realized from conversations i've had and from research that this stagnation despite hard work turns out to be pretty common
So i like to share with you
Some insights into why that is and what we can all do about it
What have learned is that the most effective people and teams in any domain do something we can all emulate they go through life
Deliberately alternating between two zones
The learning zone and the performance zone
The learning zone is when our goes to improve
Then we do activities design for improvement
Concentrtraon what we have haven't mastered yet
Which means we have to expect to make mistakes knowing that we will learn from them
That is very different from what we do when 're in our performance zone
Which is when our goals to do something as best as we can to execute
Then we concentrate on what we have already mastered
And we try to minimize mistakes both of these zones should be part of our lives
But being clear about when we want to be in each of them with what goal focus and expectations helps us better perform and better improve
The performance zone maximizes are immediate performance
While the learning zone maximies are growth and our future performance
The reason many of us don't improve much
Despite our hard work is that we tend to spend almost all of our time in the performance
Zthis hhders are growth and ironically over the long term also our performance
So what does the learning zone look like take the mostones a political leader and the greatest order and lawyer in ancient greece to become great
He didn't spend all his time just being an order or
Or a lalawyer
Which would be his performance its own
But instead
He did activity design for improvement of courhe studied a lot
He studied law and philosophy with guidance from mentors
But he also realized that being a lawyer involved persuading other people
So he also studied great speeches and acting to get rid of an odd habit
He had of involuntarily lifting his shoulder
He practiced his speeches in front of a mirror
And he suspended a sword from the ceiling
That if he raised his shoulder
He would hurt to speak more clearly despite a lisp
He went from his speeches with stones in his mouth
He built an underground room
Where he could practice without interruptions and not disturb other people and since courts at the time were very noisy
He also practied by the ocean projecting his voice above the royal of the waves
His activities in the learning zone were very different
From his activities in court
His performance of zone in the learning zone
He did what doctor ander's erackson calused deliberred practice this involves breaking down abilities into component skills
Being clear about what subscill were working to improve like keeping our shoulders down
Giving full concentration to a high level of challenge
Outside our comfort zone
Beyond what we can currently do using frequent feedback with repetition and adjustments and ideally engaging the guidance of a skilled coach
Because activities designed for improvement are domain specific and great teachers and coaches know what those activities are
And can also give us expert feedback
It is this type of practice in the learning zone
Which leads to substantial improvement not just time on task performing for example research shows it after the first couple of years working in a perfession
Performance usually plaathose
This has been shown to be true in teaching
General medicine
Nursing and other fields
And it happens because once we think we've become good enough adequate
Then we stop spending time in the learning zone
We focus all our time on just doing our job performing
Which turns out not to be a great way to improve
But the people who continue to spend time in the learning zone
Do continue to always improve the best sales
People at least once a week do activities with the goal of improvement
They read to extend knowledge consult with colleagues or domain experts try out new strategies
Solicit feedback and reflect the best chess players spend a lot of time not playing games of chess
Which would be their performance zone
But trying to predict the move's grandmasters made and analyzing them
Each of us has probably spent many many many hours typing on a computer without getting faster
But if we spent ten to win ten to twenty minutes each day fully concentrated on typing ten to twenty percent faster than our current reliable speed we would get faster
Especially
If we also identifiy what mistakes were making and practice typing those words
That's deliberate practice in what other parts of our lives
Perhaps
That we care more about are we working hard but not improving much
Because we're always in the performance zone
Now this is not to say that the performance zone has no value
It very much does when i needed new surgery
I didn't until the surgeon poke around in there
And focus on what you don't know
Well ll learn for your mistakes
I look for a surgeon
Who i thought would do a good job
And i went her to do a good job
Being the performance zone allows us to get things done
As best as we can
He can also be motivating
And it provides us with information to identify what to focus on next when we go back to the learning zone
So the way to high performance is to alternate between the learning zone and the performance zone
Purpofully building our skills in the learning zone
Then applying those skills in the performance zone
When beyond that is on tour during the concert she's in her performance zone
But every night when she gets back to the hotel room
She goes right back into her learnings on
She watches a video of the show that just ended
She identifies opportunities for improvement for herself
Her dancers and her camera staff
And the next morning
Everyone receives pages of notes with what to adjust with they
Then work on during the day before the next performance is the spiral to every increasing capabilities
But we need to know when we seek to learn
And when we seek to perform
And while we want to spend time
Doing both the more time we spend in the learning zone
The more will improve
So how can we spend more time in the learnings zone
First we must believe and understand that we can improve what we call a growth mindset
Second we must want to improve a that particular skill
There has to be a purpose
We care about
Because it takes time and effort third
We most have an idea about how to improve what we can do to improve not how i used to practice a guitars
A teenager
Performing songs over and over again
But doing deliberate practice and forth we must be in a low stake situation
Because if mistakes are to be expected
Then the consequence of making them must not be catastrophic or even very significant a tight
Roae walker doesn't practice new tricks without a net underneath and an athlete wooding set out to first try a new move during a champiship match one reason that in our lives we spend so much time in the performance zone is that our environments often are unnecessarily high speakes
We create social risks for one
Another even in schools
Which are supposed to be all about learning
And i'm not talking about standardize tests
I mean that every minute of every day
Many students in elementary schools through colleges feel that if they make a mistake
Others will think cleless of them no wonder
They're always stressed out
And not taking the risks necessary for learning
But they learned that mistakes are undesirable inadvertently when teachers or parents are eager to hear just correct answers and reject mistakes rather welcome and examine them them
Leararfrom them them
When we look look for arrow responses rather than encourage more exploratory thinking that we can all learn from when all homework our student work has a number or a letter on it
And comes toward a final grade rather than being used for practice
Mistakes
Feedback and revision
We send a message
That school is a performance zone
The same is through in our workplaces in the companyypsyconsoled with i often see flow less execution cultures
Which leaders foster to encourage great work
But it leads employees to state within what they know and not try new things
So company struggle to new innovate and improve
And they fall behind we can create more spaces for growth by starting conversations with one another about when we want to be in each zone
What do we want to get better at
And how and when do we want to execute and minimize mistakes
That way we gain clearity about what success is when and how to best support one another
But what if we find ourselves in chronic high stake setting
And we feel we can't start those conversations
Yet then here are three things we can still do as individuals
First we can create low stakes
Islands in an otherwise high stakes
Sea
These are spaces
Where mistakes have little consequence for example
We might find a mentor or a trustic colleague with when we can exchange ideas or have vulnerable conversations or even role play
Or we can ask for feedback oriented meetings as projects
Progress
Or we can set aside time to read or watch videos or take online courses
Those are just some examples
Second we can execute and perforformwe're expected
But then reflect on what we could do better next time like beyond at does
And we can observe an emulate experts
The observation
Reflection and adjustment is a learning zone
And finally we can lead and lower the stakes for others
By sharing what we want to get better at
By asking questions about what we don't know by solicitand feeback
And by sharing our mistakes
And what we've learned from them
So that others can feel safe to do the same real confidence is about modelling ongoing learning what if instead of spending our life is doing
Doing
Doing
Performing
Performing
Performming we spend more time
Exploring king
Listening
Experimenting
Reflecting
Striving and becoming what if we each always had something we were working to improve what if we created more loastics
Islands and waters
And what if we got clear within ourselves and with our teammates
About when we seek to learn
And when we seek to perform
So that our efforts can become our consequenal
Our improvement never ending
And our best even better thank you
