1The Road to Excellence Speech at the Ceremonial Admission of MBA VI on 09 October 2009 H.R.Lim A Po Dear Participants,Some of you may have heard of J ohn McEnroe. In the late seventies and early eighties hewasAmericasWorldno1professionaltennisplayer.HewonsevenGrandSlam singlestitles-threeatWimbledonandfourattheUSOpen-nineGrandSlammen's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title. He is remembered for his shot-making artistry and superb volleying and he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999.I worked for Shell in The Hague at the time that McEnroe was reaping glory and in those days a favorite saying of my boss, Paul Everard, was: If you want to play like McEnroe, you have to practice like McEnroe. I thought that I understood the underlying message ofthisphrasebeingthatthereisnosubstituteforhardwork.Butitisonlyrecently, whenIreadaboutMalcolmGladwellslatestbooktitledOutliers(Uitblinkers)thatI appreciated the deeper sense of Pauls favorite saying. He was making a reference to a particular notion of work ethic. This particular notion of work ethic was coined deliberate practicein1993byAndersEricsson1aprofessorofPsychologyatFloridaState University.Theessenceofthisworkethicisthatonewillachieveexcellenceonly through an enormous amount of hard work over many years; and not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that is demanding and painful. Researching the reasons why some people excel in a particular activity Ericsson found outthatnotallpracticemakesperfectjustlikelivinginacavedoesnotmakeyoua geologist.Whatyouneedisaparticularkindofpracticedeliberatelyandspecifically designed to improve performance. (Gerichte oefening). Ericsson suggests that a number of particular clichs regarding work ethic that over the years has lost originality and effectiveness, still happen to be true.The first one being that expert performers are made, not born. The second is that practice makes perfect,

1 K.Anders Ericsson, Ralf TH.Krampe, and Tesch-Romer, The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance, Psychological Review 1993 Vol.100 no 3,363-406;2be it not all types of practice and the third that when it comes to choosing a life path you should do what you love, because if you dont love what you do, you are unlikely to work hardenoughtogetverygoodatit.Ericssoninfersfromthisthegoodnewsthat everybodyisimprovabletoremarkablyhighlevelsandthebadnewsthatthe improvement only comes about due to hard work. BasedontheseconclusionsEricssondescribestheconceptofdeliberatepracticefor exceptionalperformerslikeMcEnroe,asactivity,thatisexplicitlyintendedtoimprove performance,thatreachesforobjectivesjustbeyondoneslevelofcompetence, providesfeedbackonresultsandinvolveshighlevelsofrepetition.Thenumberone indicator of success therefore is to be systematic and effective at using practice time. These conditions of deliberate practice for world class performers could be translated for more general learning which you will experience during your MBA study over the next two years, in the following terms: optimal learning experience takes place when a highly motivatedstudentwithgoodconcentrationperformsawelldefinedtaskatan appropriatelevelofdifficulty,receivesinformativefeedbackandgraduallyengagesin reflective practice. This approach to learning is important because it represents a full shift from the often used term mastery learning to the newer viewpoint that talks about teaching and learning as a process. Incorporating deliberate practice in education is all about developing the person in fact the finished product is the person, not some test result, paper, or project. Thespecificlearningcharacteristicsofdeliberatepracticebecomeclearincontrasting them with those of play and work.2 Work is about doing things over and again and more ofthesame.Becauselearningrequiresthatwegetoutofourcomfortzoneanddo something new there is consequently little learning in work. Work sometimes involves a publicperformancewherethehighcostofmistakesevendiscouragesexperimenting and learning and although work activities do offer some opportunities for learning, they are far from optimal.Incontrast, deliberate practice allows for repeated experiences in which the individual canattendtothecriticalaspectsoftheactivityandincrementallyimproveherorhis

2 See Anders Ericsson et al. 368 3performanceinresponsetofeedbackfromteachersormentorsandinresponseto reflective practice. Theexternalrewardsofworkactivitiesincludesocialrecognitionandmostimportant, moneywhichenablesperformerstosustainaliving.Indeliberatepracticeexternal rewards are almost completely lacking. Practioners of deliberate practice are driven by the pay-off of better; improving performance is the reward in and of itself. Play is intrinsically enjoyable, with the person often in the state of effortless flow that is very different from deliberate practice as a highly structured activity. Unlike recreational learningdeliberatepracticerequireshighlevelsofconcentrationwithfewoutside distractions and is not typically spontaneous but carefully scheduled. In spite of the fact thatcertainactivitiescanhaveinherentappealingqualities,continuedrepetitioncould leadtohabituationandfatigue.Thesacrificesrequiredbydeliberatepracticearenot driven by the status of winning or the accolades that come from success but focus on sustainable long term learning benefits. It should be clear that the concept of deliberate practice is far more than simply referring tohardwork.Itisaspecificanduniquekindofactivity,neitherworknorplay.Itis characterizedbyseveralelementsthatformapowerfulwhole.WriterGeoffColvinin WhyTalentisOverratedhighlightseightdifferentcharacteristicswhichIhave compressed to five. (1)Deliberate practice is designed specifically to improve performance with the key word being designed. The essence is continually stretching an individual just beyond his or her current abilities. (2)Feedbackonresultsiscontinuouslyavailable.Inmanyimportantsituationsa teacher, coach or mentor is vital for the feedback.(3)It is highly demanding mentally. Deliberate practice is above all an effort of focus and concentration. That is what makes it deliberate and sets it apart from both, mindless routine performance and playful engagement (4)The need to self-regulate ones activities by monitoring them and adopting reflective practices:Thereisabefore-workcomponent.Self-regulationbeginswithsetting goals not big, life directing goals, but more immediate goals for what you are going to be doing today. In the research, the poorest performers dont set goals at all; they just slog through their work. 4There is a during-work component. The most important self-regulatory skill that top performers in every field use during their work is self-observation. There is an after-work component as well. Practice activities are worthless without usefulfeedbackabouttheresults.Theremustbeself-evaluationandthebest performersjudgethemselvesagainstastandardthatisrelevantforwhattheyare trying to achieve. (5)Itishard.Thisfollowsinescapablyfromtheothercharacteristicsofdeliberate practice which could be described as a recipe for not having fun. Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that is exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands. Instead of doing what we are good at, we insistently seek out and improve what we are not good at. The Passion-Practice-Performance Chain3 Youmaylegitimatelynowaskyourselfthequestionwhatdrivesdeliberatepractice. Whatdopeoplewhoexcelhavethatothersdonot?Thesimpleanswerispassion, exceptional motivation. Passion is a strong inclination toward an activity that individuals like,thattheyfindimportant,andinwhichtheyinvesttimeandenergy.Another important characteristic of passion is that the activity concerned has been internalized

3 Roni DiRomualdo, Are Top performers born or made, Wisconsin Technology Network http://talentdevelop.com/articles/ATPBOM.html downloaded 07-10-09 5into their identity. Ericsson noted that if one does not love what one does then chances are good that she or he will never put in the time needed to master it. In other words, top performersdontneedtheactivitytobefuntomotivatethemtodoit.Theirpassion, their motivation to perform better makes the activity worth-while, no matter how difficult, strenuous, and effortful it may be. Hence, passion represents a major motivational force underlying deliberate practice. It is an important source of fuel that allows people to go through long and frustrating practice sessions, and that eventually helps them attain high levels of performance. However, passion does not influence performance directly. Rather, passion sets things in motion by providing people with the energy and goals to engage in deliberate practice, anditisthisdeliberatepracticethathasadirectinfluenceonperformance.Passion providesthemotivationfordeliberatepracticeanddeliberatepracticeresultsinhigh performance.Itdoessobecauseitenablesonetoidentifycertainsharplydefined elements of performance and then work intently and intensely on them. Such practice over many years is an important predictor of the attainment of world class performance like McEnroe has achieved. But recent studies show that it is also an important predictor for performance attainment within the span of a couple of years like the MBA program and within the span of even just a few months like the period of thesis writing within the program.4 It appears from the foregoing that for each of you to display sustained involvement and improvement in achievement; passion and debate practice have to be implicated in your performanceattainmentintheprogram..Excellenceisnotmagicanditisnotborn.It happens because some critical things line up so that a person of good intelligence can putinthefocusedandcontinuouseffortittakestoachieveextraordinarymastery. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities and who have had the strength andpresenceofmindtoseizethem.Thesepeopledonotnecessarilyhavean especially high IQ, but they almost always have very supportive environments, and they almost always have important mentors. And one thing they always have is an incredible investment in effort driving the virtuous chain of passion, practice and performance.*

4 Larry C.Farmer & Gerald R. Williams, Paper prepared for UCLA/IALS Sixth International Clinical Conference Enriching Clinical Conference 2005, http://wistechnology.com/article.php?id=2958 downloaded07-10-09