Great at Work: The Hidden Habits of Top Performers

by Morten T. Hansen

common among musicians and athletes. They also rely on informal, rapid feedback from peers, direct reports, and bosses, and not just coaches. And they take steps to measure the “softer” skills that permeate the workplace.

learning loop scorecard consisting of six items that included phrases such as: “makes changes in an effort to improve”; “tries out new approaches”; “learns from failures”; “is curious;” “doesn’t believe he/she knows best”; and “experiments a lot”

they worked smart by focusing on the quality of each of the loops when learning at work. To understand how they might have done so, let’s look in detail at one individual in our study who sought to improve her job skills, constantly reviewed how she worked, learned from failures, and became a top 10 percent performer as a result.

LOOPING AT WORK

She tried a new approach to asking questions (“do”), gauged the outcome of soliciting an idea (“measure”), received analysis and suggestions from Steve to follow up (“feedback”), and altered her plan to ask a second question (“modify”).

Brittany’s deviations from Dan’s deliberate practice method underscore the challenges inherent in learning while working. She broke down the abstract skill she sought into a specific behavior (asking a good question). She measured her behavior by zooming in on two metrics (number of ideas proposed and implemented). She received constructive feedback by working closely with a coach, while also receiving feedback from her team. And she only spent a few minutes each day focusing on learning.

The following week, Brittany held another huddle where again she asked the question, “What ideas do you have for improving patient service?” A staff member suggested, “How about asking patients before we leave what else we can help them with?” Brittany followed up with: “Okay, great, when can you start doing that?” Another staff member mumbled, “Whenever we can,” and that was it. Oops, not such a good outcome, either. In the debrief, coach Marlys suggested that she needed to ask people explicitly to get involved. So again Brittany modified her plan, completing her second learning loop. In a huddle a few weeks later, she again posed the question, “What ideas do you have for improving patient service?” Staff members were now more excited and proposed more ideas, including, “How about we plan better to avoid out-of-stock items?”

Brittany responded: “That’s interesting, let’s get together this week in a smaller group to work on that, okay?” Which they did. In the debrief, coach Steve praised her improvements, and they planned the next modification. In this third loop, she finally mastered the art of soliciting ideas and ensuring a commitment from staff to follow through.

And so it went, with Brittany addressing many issues over a couple of dozen learning loops. Her boss, too, joined the huddles from time to time and provided feedback. Brittany learned to spend less valuable meeting time on announcements (implemented in a learning loop), to talk less about the data and more about how to solve problems (another learning loop), to ask employees how she as a manager might support ...

Only 17 percent of people in our 5,000-person dataset scored this high. Almost half scored low or very low, suggesting that many people can benefit from becoming better at learning from their failures.

Observing Brittany’s progress, we find that it’s the quality of each of these loops that helped her improve and not their sheer number. Imagine what might have happened had she attempted an endless series

repetitions with no learning from failures, no feedback, and minimal modifications. She would have invested a great deal of hard work but progressed very little. Learning on the job is not about practicing for 10,000 hours; it...

As Brittany noted, “the way I learned to ask questions made all the difference” in helping her team generate all these ideas. And the 84 ideas that were implemented affected critical outcomes. Patient satisfaction with food temperature, food quality, and the courtesy of staff members all rose. The number of products out

of stock in the department plummeted from 22 per week to six. Employee back injury incidents fell from five to zero. Employee engagement scores rose from 63 to 98. Brittany no longer doubted whether she could become a good manager.

people can apply the learning loop even in situations where there is no official support.

As I’ve found in my consulting activities and in my own experience, it takes about 15 minutes of work time every day to improve a skill using the learning loop.

To apply the learning loop, all I had to do was record the event, study a few segments of the recording while on the plane home each time, ask someone to watch parts of it for 10 minutes, and then receive feedback about the one behavior I tried to improve.

Power of One: Pick one and only one skill at a time to develop. It’s hard to master a skill if you’re also working on ten others.

micro-behavior is a small, concrete action you take on a daily basis to improve a skill. The action shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to

perform and review, and it should have a clear impact on skill development.

LOOPING TACTIC #3

MEASURE THE “SOFT”

LOOPING TACTIC #4 GET NIMBLE FEEDBACK, FAST

LOOPING TACTIC #5

DIG THE DIP

When trying out an idea, you don’t want to take big risks. If you do, you won’t just see a dip—you’ll fall off a cliff.

LOOPING TACTIC #6

CONFRONT THE STALL POINT

People seek out new improvements, but only until they reach a certain level of satisfaction. Then they stop, judging themselves “good enough.” The Nobel laureate in economics Herbert Simon termed this “satisficing” (a play on words that combined “satisfying” and “sufficing”

Why do so many people stall upon becoming “good enough”? Researchers have found that many of us automate our skills.21 At first, we might struggle to develop a sales pitch. Now we can do it in our sleep. So we do. We let skills that once required fierce effort lapse into habits. Sometimes that is a good thing. We couldn’t function if we had to contemplate every last action during our workday. But the moment a behavior becomes automatic, our learning stalls. Unless, that is, you take a tip from Magnus Carlsen and constantly push the boundaries, even when you’re on top.

The top performers in our study followed Carlsen’s dictum. A whopping 74 percent of the top performers in our dataset constantly reviewed their work in an effort to learn and improve. That compares with only 17 percent of people in the underperforming category.

Top performers don’t rest. They keep learning. Remember Jiro, the sushi chef from chapter two? At age eighty-five, he was still pushing himself. “All I want to do is make better sushi,” he said in the film. “I do the same things over and over again, improving bit by bit. Even at my age, after decades of work, I don’t think I have achieved perfection.”

Yet there is another reason to redesign and implement the learning loop. You also adapt better to changes in the workplace. In many industries, new technologies have ushered in innovative working methods and automation.23 Graphic design has disrupted the work of newspaper typesetters. Voice mail and smartphones have eliminated many secretarial jobs. Online travel sites have displaced travel agents. Robots have gnawed away at traditional factory jobs. These are punctuated changes—they rupture the fabric of work and make skills irrelevant. As such disruption continues, you might need to innovate the way you work so as to stay relevant and keep your job.

I am too busy with work to deal with training and practice. #1. Carve out just 15 minutes per day of your time, and focus on one key skill at a time (the power of one). I don’t know where to start—it’s too difficult to improve a broad skill, like “prioritize better.” #2. Chunk it, breaking your desired skill into small, concrete, daily micro-behaviors. I don’t know how to measure the outcome of what I am doing. For instance, how do I know I am listening better in a meeting? #3. Focus on tracking micro-behaviors. If you’re working on listening better, did you make eye contact with the person who was speaking (yes/no)? Our annual performance review doesn’t give me feedback when I need it. It’s too sporadic. #4. Solicit nimble feedback: brief, informal, instant comments—from peers. No bloated surveys! I am afraid to try new ways of working that may fail. I am doing just fine with my current setup. #5. Conduct small experiments to limit any downside, and then implement those that work. I’ve gotten comfortable in my routines and am no longer making much progress. #6. Push beyond “stall points” by de-automating your routines.

KEY INSIGHTS THE LEARNING LOOP

The “Work Harder” Convention We need 10,000 hours of practice to master a job skill. Practice—repetition—makes perfect. The New “Work Smarter” Perspective It isn’t how many hours you practice. It’s how you learn. And that “how” differs in the workplace from the deliberate practice pursued by athletes and musicians. The best performers at work implement the learning loop, in which the quality—and not the quantity—of each iteration matters most. Key Points • Statistical analysis of our 5,000-person dataset showed that people who applied the learning loop perform much better than those who didn’t. • To learn well at work, we must overcome important challenges that people don’t face when trying to master skills in sports, music, chess, and memory tests (the areas where most research on deliberate practice has been conducted). • The Learning Loop is an approach to learning while you perform your daily work: you try out a new approach in a small way (e.g., how you ask a question in a meeting), then measure the outcome, then get quick feedback, then tweak your approach based on that feedback (e.g., ask the question differently). • You can deploy six tactics to implement the learning loop in your

job: 1. Carve out just 15 2. Chunk it 3. Measure the “soft” 4. Get nimble feedback, fast 5. Dig the dip 6. Confront the stall point. • Effective learners break an overarching skill into micro-behaviors: they are small, concrete actions you take on a daily basis to improve a skill. The action shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to perform and review, and it should have a clear impact on skill development. • How do you thrive in your career even when technological and ot...

P-SQUARED (PASSION AND PURPOSE)

What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead. —Nelson Mandela1

“When you’re doing the work you’re meant to do,” she said to the 25,000 people assembled in the stadium, “it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you’re getting paid.” And then she delivered the punch line: “So, I say to you, forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion. Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart and success will come to you!”2

Huffington Post blog summed up what has become a mantra for our age: “The Key to Success: Loving What You Do.”5

do NOT

The advice to follow your passion—in other words, letting your passion dictate what you do—can be dangerous.

was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love!

Is there a solution to this tradeoff between “following” or “ignoring” passion? Yes. Our research uncovered a third option: “matching.”

Some people pursue passion in navigating their careers, but they also manage to connect this passion with a clear sense of purpose on the job—they contribute, serve others, make a difference. They have matched passion with purpose.

To be passionate about work is to feel energized by it, to experience a sense of e...

As for purpose, scholars and self-help gurus have advised that we organize our lives around contributing to the well-being of society. Yet that’s an overly narrow view of purpose. It can also mean creating value for an organization, as defined in chapter three. Just because you’re not saving kids in Africa or helping homeless people on the streets of Chicago doesn’t mean your job lacks purpose. Our study led us to define purpose more broadly: You have a sense of purpose when you make valuable contributions to others (individuals or organizations) or to society that you find personally meaningful and that don’t harm anyone.

Purpose and passion are not the same. Passion is “do what you love,” while purpose is “do what contributes.” Purpose asks, “What can I give the world?” Passion asks, “What can the world give me?”

P-SQUARED AND PERFORMANCE Why is matching passion and purpose so effective?