Practice

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.  – Anton Chekhov

At the beginning of the year, I decided that I would learn to play the piano, something I have wanted to do for years and now finally have the space and time to enjoy.

 With piano teachers not able to deliver face to face lessons I’ve spent the last few months teaching myself to read music and play. I have to say it is thoroughly absorbing making music (well that’s what I call it) and learning something completely new.

 I’m progressing well but realised early on that a large part of the process is simply regular practise. I continue to surprise myself. I look at a new piece and think how on earth do you play that, then several weeks later, having worked it out and practised it many times I am able to play the piece fluently (again my assessment!)

 My mind then wandered to business. We all read books, listen to webinars, maybe even take an online course and surprisingly after this brief experience think that we are experts in a new topic. Are we really that well versed in these new learnings after one read through or a few hours online?

 I’m a big Chris Voss advocate (Ex FBI lead hostage negotiator and author of Never Split the Difference). I’ve counted up, there are around 10 negotiation techniques in his book. All of them seem effective to me, I’m sure that I’d be a better negotiator if I became an expert.  I wonder how many of us distil these techniques, deliberately practised them and make them new habits?