DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence

The Relationship Between Skill Practice and Deliberate Practice

 By Victor L. Magdaraog

The skill practice component of our leadership development program, Interaction Management always fascinated me. In all my years working with DDI clients, I’ve always heard “ah-hahs” and literally seen “light bulbs” switching on after a good round of skill practice. The skill practice usually starts slow, with participants considering it a chore, or a workshop activity they just have to do, but after the first round of feedback, most realize the tremendous learning they just experienced. They realize what leadership is all about.

Leadership after all is an acquired skill and a form of expertise. One cannot develop leadership by simply reading books, sitting through a lecture, doing case analysis, or listening to a round of motivational speeches. You have to do it. You have to experience it. You have to want it. Unfortunately, there are very few opportunities to practice leadership on the job. Being a leader is not like a concert pianist who has time to practice before going on stage for the concert. When one gets promoted to a leadership role, there are usually no “practice runs”. You are online on the first day, and if you are not ready, it can be a rough transition. For those in leadership roles, we all know that becoming an excellent leader is tough and the result of hard work. If it were easy, we would all be great leaders.

So, why are there superior leaders and others are just not good enough?  The better ones invest time and energy in focused development, which has two parts.  The first part is the Interaction Management skills course itself.  It provides foundation skills necessary to be successful in a leadership task and through the skill practice opportunities offered.  A major area of the skill practice that is part of each course is to hone the target behaviour and provide the confidence necessary to try out the new behavior on the job.  The second step in the Interaction Management process deals with on-the-job skill strengthening of the behaviors taught in the Interaction Management course.  This is a major opportunity for deliberate practice

Over the past years, there has been an increase in interest on the concept of deliberate practice.  Very recently, popular author Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, and Goeff Colvin’s book, Talent is Overrated, has an entire chapter on it. Renowned executive coach Ram Charan refers to this as “deliberate leadership development.” In the book Extraordinary: Stories for Aspiring Leaders, it is referred to as “Deliberate Development Initiative.”  The thinking in deliberate practice is that expertise or superior performance is achieved through years of purposeful practice and exercise.

Dr. Anders K. Ericsson, one of the leading researchers on deliberate practice says “You need a particular kind of practice—deliberate practice—to develop expertise. When most people practice, they focus on the things they already know how to do. Deliberate practice is different. It entails considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well—or even at all.”

Since there is pressure on leaders to achieve project outcomes or resolve work issues, performance takes center stage, and on-the-job practice takes the rear seat.  In most situations, we are satisfied with what is good enough performance. We are happy to float, rather than learn how to swim well. If we are successful in these instances, we learn just enough functional competence. Ericsson cautions against a mistaken notion of that good enough achievement level will lead to superior performance. In some cases, being satisfied with everyday performance could even lead to “arrested development”.  To minimize the possibility of arrested development, it is necessary to couple formal learning with guided on-the-job experiences.

Our challenge as leadership development practitioners is to blend the learning outcome of Interaction Management courses with challenging developmental initiatives on the job. Helping leaders keep their focus on the learning goals as they pursue the development initiative alongside achieving performance goals, increases the likelihood of developing leadership expertise.

After learning more about deliberate practice, I have developed an even higher regard for the simple, yet powerful skill practice in Interaction Management and I am more concerned that we need to encourage our students to practice the same deliberate practice on-the-job. Would a little more skill practice help you?

Victor L. Magdaraog is a Vice President Development at Dimensions International (DDI) in the Phillipines.

The Competitive Advantage You Probably Overlook

By Victor L. Magdaraog

Once again, the strategic planning season is upon a majority of companies. It’s time to dust off those planning manuals and scorecards. As has been practiced for years, companies will look at the market, customers, competition and some of the usual suspects that might just jump in and grab market share.

After reviewing these external factors, companies craft their strategies, build new scorecards and plan for resources they require including that other resource called talent. In the process they continue to search for that ever elusive competitive advantage. That single element which will provide the firm the unique advantage in the market.

Unfortunately, this external view of strategy is not the best approach that will give an organization its strongest competitive strategy. In my view, the best place to begin with strategy formulation is to look internally and look intensely at the firm’s talent. Talent is the best source of competitive advantage. Jay Barney and Delwyn Clark in their book Resource-based Theory, refers to characteristics that are “imperfectly imitable” as a source of sustained competitive advantage. A talent view of strategy and the firm guarantees that the company will discover that “imperfectly imitable” dimension. To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, the talent of which I refer to is not a set of competencies, but rather a mix of individual talent – leaders, value creators and individual performers who all contribute to realize the company’s aspirations. It is this mix of talent that is imperfectly imitable.

Just how does one start with strategy formulation using talent as source of its competitive advantage? Every individual talent has his or her own unique markers in a manner of speaking. These markers are represented by the individual’s success profile – competencies, experiences, knowledge and personal attributes. These markers form the individual’s talent DNA. With detailed understanding of these success profiles, one can then understand the value that individuals are capable of creating. Paul Romer, an economist, posits that the new factors of economic growth are people, ideas and things. People develop ideas which in turn are converted into things – products, services, intellectual property. These individuals then with their unique success profiles create ideas which a firm can convert to products, services or intellectual capital.

As these individual success profiles are consolidated across the firm, the organization’s DNA appears in the shape of intellectual assets, capabilities, structural assets and relational assets. Intellectual assets are knowledge developed by individuals that the firm is able to patent or claim exclusive rights over.

Capabilities are organizational competencies that individual members have designed. Structural assets are processes and methodologies developed by employees , while relational assets are customer relationships, connections and networks established by associates over time. Relational assets include corporate culture as well.

It is this unique set of assets, assets which are the consolidation of individual success profiles that are the best source of that unique competitive advantage.

It is best to start your strategic planning process with a talent audit. A process to appraise the talent mix (leaders, value creators and individual performers) who all constitute the firm. These individuals have contributed to the firm’s accumulated wealth represented by the four assets – intellectual, capabilities, structural and relational. It is this wealth that is the source of that rare and imperfectly imitable competitive advantage.

When was the last time you took stock of your organization’s talent mix and the wealth they have accumulated? Before jumping into an external scan, take a long look at what you have inside the firm. You will be surprised with the wealth of talent that surrounds you.

Victor L. Magdaraog is a Vice President with Development Dimensions International (DDI) in the Philippines

Talent is the Strategy

By Victor L. Magdaraog

Fade in

In the beginning there was a person.  He was an entrepreneur named Talent. He had an idea. Despite the odds he plodded on until others believed in him. He converted his idea into something tangible. He created value for others and they loved him. More and more were happy with his idea. The idea grew and expanded and Talent needed help, so he created a firm. 

Fade out.

In recent years, companies struggled with defining how to make their organization’s talent agenda more strategic. Leadership pipelines, succession planning, analytics, workforce development, engagement—all these were conceived and designed to get the talent agenda to the board room. Some firms realized it was the right thing to do and simply put the talent agenda in the boardroom even if they were not sure why. They just knew intuitively that it belonged there somehow.

Others called for alignment with business strategies. But this fell short of making talent truly strategic: most saw “alignment” as merely attaching the talent strategy as an appendix of the business strategy. In most cases, this was because the strategy planning process followed models that looked at externalities to craft the business strategy: competition, suppliers, customers, new entrants, industry configuration and the like. 

Where was talent? Oh, it’s part of the organization. Talent was an internal piece; it was only an afterthought in strategy formulation.

Rewind.

Didn't we start with Talent in the first place? Think about it, do strategies create talent, or does good talent create excellent strategies? Where do strategies come from? The traditional view is to look at external factors, craft the strategy, then mobilize resources including talent. But firms still generate weak strategies and execute poorly.

Maybe the way to look at this is to start with talent. Paul Romer, an economist, suggests that there are new factors of production—people, ideas and things.  Translation: Talent, ideas, and organizations. Come to think of it, business strategies do not create talent, good talent create excellent strategies! Much in the same way as organizations don't learn, people do. Look at the great firms around you.

Look closer.

Zoom in.

Talent is the strategy!

Victor L. Magdaraog is a Vice President with Development Dimensions International (DDI) in the Philippines