[Neurons] 2016 Neurons #38 The Road to the Extra-Ordinary!

Mon Aug 15 08:48:03 EDT 2016

From: L. Michael Hall

2016 "Neurons" Meta Reflections - #38

August 15, 2016

Re: The Olympics of Training

The Kind of Training that Creates

Olympic Champions

THE ROAD TO THE EXTRA-ORDINARY!

"Deliberate practice can revolutionize our thinking about human potential."

Anders Ericsson (p. 256)

As the Olympics continue in Rio de Janeiro this week, we keep seeing
extraordinary performances- world-class athletes doing incredible things.
How are they able to do this?  How does it work that anyone who can do
extraordinary things?  What kind of training produces expertise?

I ask these questions because NLP is about modeling best practices.  And
that modeling of the extraordinary arose from Maslow's Psychology of the
Bright-Side.  Abraham Maslow began this focus when he began his "Good Humans
Studies" which was triggered by two extraordinary "good human specimens"-Max
Wertheimer and Ruth Benedict.  As a Behaviorist he had already studied some
of the highest intelligent animals (he did the bonding studies with
chimpanzees with Harry Harlow at the University of Wisconsin).  So when Max
and Ruth caught his attention, he began studying "the best" of humans.  That
began a thirty-year study of self-actualizing people.

Now while this has been the focus of NLP, NLP has never had an exclusive
right on this subject.  Since Maslow's initiation of the Human Potential
Movement and Humanistic Psychology, many others have followed.  Among them
is Anders Ericsson, the Swedish Psychologist.  And the newest book by Anders
Ericsson continues this theme of modeling excellence.  In Peak: Secrets from
the New Science of Expertise (2016) he has highlighted the concept that he
is known for-"deliberate practice."  And in terms of the study of expertise
and how expertise develops, Ericsson is an undisputed leader.  It was Anders
who led out with scholarly papers on expertise and who then put his
longitudinal studies in a massive 800+ page book, The Cambridge Handbook of
Expertise and Expert Performance (2006).

In his latest work Ericsson focuses on the importance of training for
developing and expanding capacity and argues persuasively throughout the
work that "potential" is much less a function of genetics and "innate
talent" than "the right training."

"The clear message from decades of research is that no matter what role of
genetic endowment in 'gifted' people, the main gift that these people have
is the same one we all have- the adaptability of the human brain and body,
which they have taken advantage of more than the rest of us." (xviii)

He argues that the ability to create, through the right sort of training and
practice, abilities that they would not otherwise possess by taking
advantage of the incredible adaptability of the human brain and body.  It is
this adaptability through the right kind of learning that makes all the
difference- we could say, the Olympic difference.

"... this is a book about a fundamental new way of thinking about human
potential, one that suggests that we have far more power than we ever
realized to take control of our lives." (xix)

The key then is the right kind of training, training "in the right way."

"People have a tremendous capacity to improve their performance as long as
they train in the right way." (p. 113)   

So what is this right way to train?  The answer is "deliberate practice."
Read that carefully.  He did not merely say "practice."  Mere practice, in
fact, is not the key and may in fact make things worse.  What?!  Yes our
common ideas about "practice" are mostly "myths."  Ericsson argues that any
practice which does not tap into the unique qualities of deliberate practice
can be worse than no practice at all.  Shocking?  Stunning?  Yes, for anyone
who has grown up with the idea that all you need is practice and effort.
In this book Ericsson calls deliberate practice "the gold standard" of
practice and it is for anyone who wants to take advantage of the gift of
adaptability in building new skills.

So what's wrong with practice as we normally think about practicing
something?  Ericsson says that the misunderstanding is that "continued
practice improves skill." But it does not.   "Research has shown that once a
person reaches that level of 'acceptable' performance" so that the skill
becomes automatic, then "the additional years of practice don't lead to
improvement (p. 13)."  And the reason?  Homeostasis (p. 37).  "The human
body has a preference for stability."  And the problem with traditional
approaches is that they are "not designed to challenge homeostasis" (p. 48).
Most people are "satisfied to live in the comfortable rut of homeostasis."

"You have to keep upping the ante; run farther, run faster, run uphill.   If
you don't keep pushing and pushing and pushing some more, the body will
settle into homeostasis, albeit at a different level.  This explains the
importance of staying just outside your comfort zone; you need to
continually us to keep the body's compensatory changes coming." (p. 40)

This gives us our first hints about what's involved in deliberate practice.
And in this special kind of practice is the structure of expertise-the
critical success variables that lead to "the right kind of training."  It is
this kind of training that produces extraordinary results.

1) Focused on small specific goals which are in service of the larger
long-term goal.  When you make your practice deliberate and purposeful, you
start with a well-defined goal, create a plan, then break the skill down and
put together "a bunch of baby steps."  Now you can truly focus your full
attention on a specific detail of the skill in question.   Now you have a
clear objective of your focus; now you can zoom in with close attention to
every detail of the performance you are working on.

"If your mind is wandering or you're relaxed and just having fun, you
probably won't improve. ...  There's little point to practicing if you don't
focus." (p.  151, 154)

2) Strained effort as you up the ante and push yourself to the edge of your
discomfort.  The effort here is not effort for the sake of effort, but to
break out of the body's homeostatic processes that seek to prevent
instability and compensate for disequilibrium. 

"Most people live lives that are not particularly physically challenging.
...  The reason that most people don't possess these extraordinary physical
capabilities isn't because they don't have the capacity for them, but
because they're satisfied to live in the comfortable rut of homeostasis."
(p. 47)

"The hallmark of purposeful or deliberate practice is that you try to do
something you cannot do-that takes you out of your comfort zone." (p. 159) 

3) Constant and precise empirical feedback to monitor how you are doing.
"Without feedback, you cannot figure out what you need to improve on or how
close you are to achieving your goals."  This feedback needs to be
sensory-based (something you can see or hear) because when you are able to
measure it, you can monitor how you are doing- what's working, what's not
working, what to do instead.

The incredible thing about deliberate practice is that it aims beyond merely
reaching your potential, it aims at developing your capacity.  That's why we
have developed benchmarks in Neuro-Semantics as well as a training process
that taps into the wisdom and insight of "the structure of expertise" as
detailed by Ericsson and others.  We do that in Meta-Coaching, which is a
whole system designed in this way.  We are doing this in the
Self-Actualization Trainings.  We also do this in the Trainers' Training
(NSTT). 

People interested in trainings that incorporate deliberate practice and
trainers who are fascinated in learning how to train in this way do not come
to Neuro-Semantics because it is easy.  It is not.  It is rigorous.  It is
challenging.  We invite people to move to the edge of their comfort zone and
then two more steps.  People come precisely for these reasons- it is
challenging, rigorous, and demanding- and fun.

They want this because in this way they develop and expand their capacity
for learning, developing, and moving to areas of expertise.  They do this
because they want to be on the cutting-edge of excellence.  It is not for
the fair-hearted.  It is not for those who need therapy.  It is for those
who are ready to be challenged to be more than they ever imagined they could
be. 

Join the Olympic Training for Trainers (NSTT): 

NSTT: Neuro-Semantic Trainers' Training in 2016 is in Hong Kong.

                         Dates: Sept. 28- Oct. 12.

                         Sponsored by APTI: Asia Professional Training
Institute

                         Lead by L. Michael Hall and a group of
Neuro-Semantic Master Trainers

                         Contact:  <mailto:evy at apti.com.hk;>
evy at apti.com.hk;  <mailto:sherran at apti.com.hk> sherran at apti.com.hk 

                         Ask for the Flyer of the event.

Resources (see  <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com for
these books):

  Achieving Peak Performance (2009)

  Benchmarking Intangibles (2011)

   Self-Actualization Psychology (2012)

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

               Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

               Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net

    ISNS new logo

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Self-Actualization: Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential
Movement in 2007, for information about this, see
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org  

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