This week we take a look at behavior change and habit development. We’ll look at this from a few angles; starting with how to change someone else’s mind, to why traditional training doesn't work, and finally, I share some of my archival research on the importance of deliberate practice in developing new skills.
What does it take to change someone’s mind? It’s simple. Shut up and listen. Nilofer Merchant shares a powerful story about the impact of listening on changing cultural norms in one Pakistani village. Enjoy her story in this Harvard Business Review piece. Why leadership training doesn’t work. In a typical leadership training workshop, leaders leave excited to implement the 5-10 new learnings into their toolkit immediately. However, after two weeks, leaders are lucky to retain even one or two essential points from the session. Read my latest Forbes piece to see how to make leadership training work. [From the Archives] The importance of deliberate practice. Geoff Colvin, author of Talent is Overrated, shares a brief study on how applying deliberate practice as a part of sales training sparked massive sales increases. Geoff’s book and research dives into foundational research on why hard work and deliberate practice are more important than innate talent. Watch this short clip, and I highly recommend reading his book.
