The Myth of Talent

How does a person reach high levels of performance and accomplishment?

The argument and ideas presented in this blog series will explain the role and importance of 1) deliberate practice, 2) sustained effort, 3) psychological safety and confidence, 4) relationship with an admired teacher, 5) group identity, and 6) social isolation or inclusion in achieving high levels of performance and accomplishment. These ideas were presented to the faculty of SFDS in my inaugural address in September 2007 and to a speech to the Upper School student body last winter. I believe these ideas have powerful implications for both the design of instruction and the social culture of a school environment.

How does a person reach high levels of performance and accomplishment? The first answer that comes to mind is likely, “You have got to have talent, and talent is essentially inherited,” Inherited talent is only a small part of the answer. Research on expert performance in a wide variety of professional fields demonstrates that most of us are capable of much higher levels of performance than we think; there are no inherent limits to our accomplishments. The limits we place on ourselves because of our sense of our talent have been proven to be artificial and often a self (not)-fulfilling prophecy.

I first encountered these ideas in an article in the New York Times titled "A Star Is Made" by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt. (New York Times, May 2006, Freakonomics) The authors analyze the puzzling phenomenon that most of the professional soccer stars in Europe were born in the first three months of the year. They discovered that in youth leagues throughout Europe, coaches routinely selected slightly older kids for their teams, mistaking physical maturity for ability. Hence, early in their lives these kids were selected to play on competitive teams, benefiting from years of practice and excellent coaching. The random factor of their birth dates (not inherent talent) gives them the opportunity to be groomed for elite performance and made into stars.

What does excellent coaching provide that leads to expert performance? Sustained deliberate practice. Deliberate practice means more than simply repeating a task over and over. Rather it means 1) setting appropriate specific goals, 2) obtaining immediate feedback, 3) correcting the performance based on the feedback, and 4) concentrating as much on technique as outcome. Research done by Anders Ericsson at University of Florida has demonstrated that many people can become experts in tasks such as short term memory, playing a violin, chess, software design, golf, and even surgery with years devoted to deliberate practice.

How might these concepts of sustained deliberate practice play out in a classroom environment? An instructor who is interested in helping students become excellent writers of compelling nature non-fiction, might first focus on opening sentences that grab the reader’s attention. Students would practice writing sentences and then get feedback from the instructor. That feedback would enable them to revise and revise again. Once they develop this expertise, the instructor would move on to another specific goal, such as “placing accurate detail in the context of ecological dynamics.” Again the path to excellent performance requires getting feedback, revising, and correcting. Over time the accumulated series of specific skills gets combined into an integrated performance. Of course, the requirement is devoting lots of time to practice and correction under the watchful eye and honest evaluation of an admired coach, mentor, or instructor.

The authors do acknowledge that devoting concentrated effort over extended periods of time is not that easy to do. They suggest that in order to devote the time, you must love what you doing. You can’t reach expert performance levels unless you are passionate about what it is you are practicing. However, our own experiences tell us that it takes more than passion. We know we can love to do something, but not always have the discipline to engage in deliberate practice. Have the authors just replaced the myth of talent with the myth of passion? Indeed, it seems they are suggesting that either you have the capacity for sustained effort or you don’t, once again implying that raw inherited talent (this time a talent for passion) determines the capacity for sustained effort.

I believe the capacity for sustained level can be learned. Next week I will tell some stories that illustrate how a relationship with a teacher, your psychological confidence, group identify, and sense of social isolation and/or inclusion powerfully affect your capacity for sustained effort.

Stay tuned.