Issue #16 - Building Teams: Practice for Mastery but Train to be Excellent

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

For those who don’t know me, I’m big on learning agility – being able to understand, translate, and apply a new concept for a specific purpose towards a desired outcome. Throughout my career this characteristic has come in handy, even if the byproduct is that I’m also a pretty good source of ‘random, why do I need to know that?’ information. Be that as it may, I have always placed a premium on personal mastery, and believe that if you are going to be a source of information—you must first be informed. Over time that intellectual curiosity morphed into a responsibility where people began to depend on me for answers and trust I was giving the ‘right’ one. And of course it gets harder the broader your reach. Whether fair or unfair, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters more is whether you can implement a scaling framework that builds the next generation of autonomous teams that can make these ‘right’ decisions (which might be different than yours) you can live with?

Most leaders agree that for organizations to experience extreme success you need teams that align to the goals and culture of the entity, however, can operate independently to achieve these goals. It’s an elusive thing to build. We go out of our way to provide the training classes, professional experiences, and lessons learned to make all that happen. I’d argue though, that these building blocks are not enough. We are developing mental and technical acuity, which is a good thing – but are we positioning these individuals for the next level where you have confidence they can operate with autonomy?

What we have done to this point, and this is where most of us stop, amounts to practice. We feel that we have put our future leaders in a position to apply what they have learned to get something right. This is a good foundation for skill development, and one where they can focus is on learning and refining techniques. If they are motivated, they will explore, repeat, and course correct to help them understand the nuances of a task and achieve initial proficiency. This is all critical, but only foundational… we need to shift are focus to a deeper level.

To build excellent teams that have the competence and aspiration to execute flawlessly and transform organizations, our focus should go beyond providing tools. As leaders we need to implement systems that push beyond repetition and instill discipline, achieving a level of mastery where teams can perform tasks correctly every time, almost instinctively. This is where I draw the distinction between Practicing and Training.

Training involves rigorous, repeated application of skills until they become second nature. It is about developing the muscle memory and mental fortitude to perform flawlessly, even under pressure. Practice lays the groundwork by helping us get things right, while training ensures we can’t get them wrong, even under the most challenging circumstances. We should aim for mastery in our domains (Practice), but the real challenge lies in moving from mastery to execution with excellence (Training). Using the United States military as an example, service members spend up 50% training for scenarios where they will need to assess situations accurately and make quick, decisive decisions.

As we look to channel more responsibilities towards our team members, remember that providing the tools and equipment is just the first part of our job. We need to instill discipline coupled with a continuous feedback loop of opportunity that gets them comfortable with rapid decision making in various situations. that gets our team comfortable with challenges. Let’s get introspective: How can we incorporate the discipline of training into their daily routines to enhance your team’s leadership capabilities? Reflect on your current approach and consider what steps you can take for them to lead with confidence.