Breakthrough Performance Gains: Simulate Difficulty

 

 

What is the secret?  You know, that thing we all pay attention to in those who seem to excel beyond the average and consistently achieve breakthrough results (and show grace while doing it).  Picture in you mind your favorite musician or athlete.  Consider those heroes who excel in their particular field, whether it be science or art or carpentry.  It seems these people are a blessing and a curse…on the one hand we love to watch them perform and desire to emulate them, on the other hand their achievements are so hard to duplicate!

Recently I read about a phenomenon that I believe may be one key to these elevated performances.  Before I tell the story let me discuss the concept.  It is the process of simulating difficulty in order to practice at a higher level than one would in a competitive or real-life situation.  Think about football players who practice wind sprints with harnessed parachutes or military personnel repeatedly carrying a log up a hill in boot camp.  The parachutes create a situation where the runner is straining against the wind, which is greater resistance than the athlete will encounter in a game.  Boot camp is known as the gauntlet that weeds out the weak and breaks down the strong.  Yet these are examples of simulating difficulty to enable individuals to effectively handle real world combat. 

Now to the story…I was reading the September issue of Sports Illustrated and came across an article on Marvin “Towny” Townsend, a high school and college baseball coach from Virginia.  The article centers around a handful of talented baseball players that lived within twenty miles of each other and grew up playing against one another in a youth league that Townsend founded.  The author (Lee Jenkins) discusses how it is unusual for so many pro baseball players to come out of an area that is not known for baseball.  He sought to find out what was the correlation with all the players and why they excelled through the ranks of little league, high school, college ball and finally to the bigs. 

The thing I want to focus on was one coaching nugget that Townsend shared with his players.  When he was a kid he practiced by swinging at bottle caps with a broomstick.  This excercise forced him to focus on his hand-eye coordination.  Later on during his coaching career he sought to challenge his players by spinning coffee lids at them during practice.  The line of thinking was that if the players could get used to hitting a coffee lid then a baseball should be no problem.  Eventually Townsend invented his own practice disks (the Towny Townsend Hitting Disc) and currently players all over the nation are using these batting aids in their practice sessions.

In your day to day activities what is one area that you want to excel? I don’t mean just beating the next guy but truly dominating. Do you desire transformative achievements? Think about your goal and consider the obstacles that consistently trip you up. What areas can you focus on to simulate difficulty and work on your game so that when you enter combat you leapfrog the status quo? Consider the Towny discs and invent your own transformative practice plan!

Interested in other tips on excelling? Check out this post on progressive training and engrams.

Thirty Second Theories: Theory X, Theory Y

Theory Designer: Douglas McGregor

Theory Summary:
Theory X and Theory Y involve the assumptions managers have about their employees and co-workers

Theory X: People tend to be passive even resistant to organizational needs. The assumption is that without active intervention by management people are passive (i.e. need an external control)

Theory Y: People desire to do their best, exhibit self-control and self direction. Management’s role is to help bring these qualities out in people

Key words:
Extrinsic Motivation (external)
Intrinsic Motivation (internally driven)

Interesting Quote:
I believed, for example, that a leader -could operate successfully as a kind of adviser to his organization. I though I could avoid being a “boss.” Consequently, I suspect, I hoped to duck the unpleasant necessity of making difficult decisions, of taking the responsibility of one course of action, among many uncertain alternatives, of making mistakes and taking the consequences. I thought that maybe I could operate so that everyone would like me — that “good human relations” would eliminate all discord and disagreement.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. … I finally began to realize that a leader cannot avoid the exercise of authority any more than he can avoid responsibility for what happens to his organization.”(“On Leadership”, Antioch Notes (May 1954, pp. 2-3)).

Publications: The Human Side of Enterprise 1960

Affiliation: President of Antioch College, founded MIT’s industrial relations section

Related Links:
Management Guru
NetMBA

Thirty Second Theories: Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs

Theory Designer: Abraham Maslow (1943)

Theory Summary: Human needs break down into five basic catagories:

Physiogical, Safety, Love, Esteem, Self-Actualization

Crux concept: When a lower need is fulfilled its strength diminishes while the strength of the next need increases

Key words:
Deficit Needs: If you don’t have enough of a certain need fulfiller you will feel this need
Homeostasis: The idea the if we are lacking in a need we subconsiously set about to meet the need to bring us into a state of equilibrium, this subconsious push to meet needs is referred to as instinctoid

Interesting Fact: Maslow was the oldest of 7 children, he came from a family of Russian immigrants. He received his BA, MA and PhD in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin

Affiliation: Began his teaching career at Brooklyn College and later chaired the psychology department at Brandeis from 1951 to 1969

Related Links:

Maslow History and Theory Link
PBS.org: People and Discoveries

Profile on Leadership: Gary Hamel

Area of Specialization:

Business Strategy and Management

Published Works:

The Future of Management, Leading the Revolution, and Competing for the Future

Articles in the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times

Summary of philosophy:  Gary Hamel in his own words

Credentials:

Since 1983, Professor Hamel has been on the faculty of the London Business School were he is currently Visiting Professor of Strategic and International Management.

Recently named #1 on Wall Street Journal’s Most Influential Business Thinkers

Links:

Gary Hamel’s Website

Online Article at Harvard Business Publishing on training employees in the art of innovation

Wall Street Journal online article

Thirty Second Theories: Equity Theory

Deals with employee’s perception of outcomes relative to inputs

Equity Theory consists of four propositions:

1. Individuals seek to maximize their outcomes (where outcomes are defined as rewards minus costs)

2. Groups can maximize collective rewards by developing accepted systems for equitably apportioning rewards and costs among members. Systems of equity will evolve within groups, and members will attempt to induce other members to accept and adhere to these systems. The only way groups can induce members to equitably behave is by making it more profitable to behave equitably than inequitably. Thus, groups will generally reward members who treat others equitably and generally punish (increase the cost for) members who treat others inequitably.

3. When individuals find themselves participating in inequitable relationships, they become distressed. The more inequitable the relationship, the more distress individuals feel. According to equity theory, both the person who gets “too much” and the person who gets “too little” feel distressed. The person who gets too much may feel guilt or shame. The person who gets too little may feel angry or humiliated.

4. Individuals who perceives that they are in an inequitable relationship attempt to eliminate their distress by restoring equity. The greater the inequity, the more distress people feel and the more they try to restore equity. (Walster, Traupmann and Walster, 1978)

Theory Designer:  Jean “Stacy” Adams 

Theory Summary: Employees compare their performance to the rewards they receive for their work.  In turn they compare themselves to fellow employees.  If there is a perception that someone is receiving more or (typically) less than their fellow employee they experience feelings of inequity.  These feelings if not resolved de-motivate individuals to the point that it affects job performance. 

Key words: 

Outcomes:  money, recognition, working conditions, promotion

Inputs:  effort, education, experience

Three types of Justice (interventions that managers use to address inequity):

Distributive Justice:  This involves financial rewards

Interactional Justice:  Involves equity in relationships

Procedural Justice:  The engineering of systems that enable a fair work environment

Publications: Original article “Towards an Understanding of Inequity” (in Journal of Applied Psychology)

Related Links:
Equity Theory Diagram
Mindtools Link

References
Latham, G.P. (2007). Work Motivation; History, Theory, Research, and Practice, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, 42  

Walster, E., Traupmann, J. & Walster, G.W. (1978). Equity and Extramarital Sexuality. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 7;2: 127-142

Thirty Second Theories: Expectancy Theory

Professor Vroom

Theory Designer: Victor Vroom

Theory Summary: People base actions on perceptions and beliefs.
In an organizational setting employees tend to believe that putting in more effort will yield better job performance, better job performance will lead to a desired outcome or rewards, such as an increase in salary or promotion, the reward will satisfy an important need and the desire to satisfy the need will make the effort worthwhile.

Two points central to expectancy theory:

Effort exerted is a function of

1. Expectation or subjective probability estimate that certain outcomes will occur as a result of performance

2. The valence of outcomes. The greater the valence of any outcome, the more likely the person is to choose to exert some effort to take action

Key words:

Valence: The emotional orientations that people hold with respect to outcome

Instrumentality: The perception the employees will get what they expect even if management gives them assurances

Expectancy: Employees have different expectations and levels of confidence based upon their belief in their ability to accomplish a task

Interesting Fact: Vroom has had a love for music and initially desired to play saxophone with a touring band. At Sir George University, Vroom completed several psychological tests that determined vocational preference. It was through these tests the Professor Vroom decided to pursue psychology as an alternative to music.

Publications: Work and Motivation, Leadership and Decision Making, and The New Leadership

Affiliation: Yale School of Management

Related Links:

Expectancy Theory
Value Based Management Site

There is a great downloadable autobiographical article on Vroom on the Yale School of Management webpage, you can access it here

Profile on Leadership: Daniel Goleman

more about "Daniel Goleman on compassion | Video …", posted with vodpod

Daniel Goleman Profile:

Profession: Science Journalist, Author, co-founded the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning at Yale University Child Studies Center

Books: Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence: The new science of human relationships, Working with Emotional Intelligence

Philosophy: Life success is based upon more than traditional measures of intelligence. Goleman has investigated the nature of social intelligence and its role in the ability to: establish relationships, lead and influence people and situations and achieve successful outcomes. Social intelligence involves the ability to adeptly navigate the nuances of interpersonal communication, social interaction, picking up on social cues and so on…

Links:

Check out this work EQ quiz and find out what your EQ at work is!

Daniel Goleman’s Website

Thirty Second Theories: ERG Motivation Theory

Theory Designer: Clayton Alderfer

Theory Summary:
Humans have three levels of need which break down into Existence, Relatedness and Growth. Unlike Maslow’s Hierarchy, ERG promotes the idea that employees have numerous needs that are occurring simultaneously

Key words:
(1) Existence and survival: refers to physiological or basic material existence motivators (i.e. food, shelter, safety)

(2) Relatedness: refers to the motivation we have for maintaining interpersonal relationships (especially as it regards to social interaction and esteem issues).

(3) Growth: refers to an intrinsic desire for personal development (the desire to achieve, create, produce and be involved in activities that provide meaning to life).

Frustration-Regression Principle: If a person is frustrated in achieving a higher goal they will revert back to a lower level goal that may be easier to attain

Publications:
Initial article published in Psychological Review entitled “An Empirical Test of a New Theory of Human Need”
Book: Existence, Relatedness and Growth; Human Needs in Organizational Settings

Affiliation: Yale University, Cornell, Rutgers, Alderfer and Associates

Related Links:
Envision
Values Based Management
University of West Virginia ERG Lecture Notes

Climbing to the sky: Royal Robbins’ Half Dome Ascent

Royal Robbins and Tom Frost-El Capitan, North American Wall

In terms of facing fear, focusing on an obstacle and claiming victory there is hardly a more compelling example than that of Royal Robbins 1957 first ascent (with partners Jerry Gallwas and Mike Sherrick) of Half Dome’s northwest face in Yosemite National Park.

I had the opportunity to talk to Royal about his climbing adventures and asked him what enabled him to believe that he could achieve such a monumental climb when people had been staring up at that cliff for thousands of years and never considered it possible. Royal went on to say that he had achieved progressive successes on other climbs in the valley and that his climb on Sentinel Rock’s Steck-Salathe route gave him the confidence to believe that he could climb Half Dome.

Here’s a great link showing details of the Steck-Salathe route

Cheers to Royal, one of my heroes!!

Courage on the field of battle: Joshua Chamberlain

 

A friend of mine recently referred me to the story of General Chamberlain and his feats leading Union troops during the civil war.  The July 1863 engagement of Union and Rebel forces at Gettysburg is considered by many historians the turning point in the war. Here is an account of the battle at Little Round Top as told by the National Park Service archive:

Great gaps also appeared in the ranks of the 20th Maine. Chamberlain’s men were holding their own, though the position was becoming more precarious as the frightful minutes dragged by. Then an officer spied Confederates moving toward the regiment’s left flank. “I immediately stretched my regiment to the left by taking intervals,” Chamberlain wrote. “My officers and men understood my wishes so well that this movement was executed under fire, the right wing keeping up the fire, without giving the enemy any occasion to seize or even suspect their advantage. They renewed the assault on our whole front and for an hour the fighting was severe. Squads of the enemy broke through our line and the fight was literally hand to hand. The edge of the fight rolled backward and forward like a wave.” Shouts for ammunition filled the air as cartridge boxes emptied. Some men had a few cartridges left while others had none, even after rifling the boxes of the dead and wounded. Knowing that the next charge would break his thin line, Chamberlain decided to take the initiative away from the 15th Alabama: “At that crisis I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough. It ran like fire along the line, from man to man and rose to a shout, with which they sprang forward upon the enemy, now not 30 yards away.”

Battle of Little Round Top: final assault

With bayonets fixed, the 20th Maine charges down Little Round Top into the 15th Alabama. The hillside echoed with the distinctive metallic click of hundreds of bayonets on rifle barrels. With a cheer, the 20th Maine rushed down the body-strewn slope. The exhausted Alabamians were caught off guard by this audacious move and scattered. Those who ran eastward were caught in a hail of bullets from the 20th’s detached Company B, lying behind a stone wall 100 yards away. Confusion reigned as the 15th Alabama melted into the trees. “We ran like a herd of wild cattle,” Oates lamented. “On the top of the mountain I made an attempt to halt and reform the regiment, but the men were helping the wounded and disabled comrades and scattered in the woods among the rocks. The dead literally covered the ground, blood stood in puddles on the rocks. The ground was soaked with the blood of as brave men as ever fell on the red field of battle.” Assisted by soldiers from the adjacent 83rd Pennsylvania, Chamberlain’s men rounded up 400 prisoners from the 15th and 47th Alabama regiments, including a number of officers.

Thirty years later, Chamberlain received a Medal of Honor for his conduct in the defense of Little Round Top. The citation read that it was awarded for “daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top”