Beyond 10,000 Hours: The Learning Path of Non-Routine Leaders
No one has 10,000 hours to become an expert; not now, and not in the foreseeable future. The goods news? There's another way.
What’s New: Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 Hour Rule" for expertise, featured in his 2008 best-seller "Outliers," captivated audiences with its simplicity. However, the real world, rapidly evolving, makes this decade-long journey to mastery impractical. There’s a faster way, and it's crucial in today's fast-paced environment.
Why it Matters: In today's business landscape, leaders face the urgent need for rapid skill acquisition. The traditional path to expertise is outdated, and Non-Routine Leaders™ showcase a more efficient approach to mastering diverse skills, essential for today's challenges.
Malcom Gladwell, Author \ Credit Aric Nicholson
The Big Picture: Rethinking Expertise
The Demand for Learning Speed
Redefining Mastery: Gladwell's theory, while intriguing, was criticized for its oversimplification and impracticality in the modern world, as noted by Anders Ericsson (1). Peter Senge emphasized the competitive advantage of learning faster than rivals (2). With skill half-lives now at 5 years (4), the 10,000-hour rule seems unfeasible.
The Demand for Speed: Interviews with leaders from Verizon, Merck, and other top companies reveal a focus on rapid re-skilling and poly-skilling (3). This shift in focus from past experience to future learning capacity reflects the urgency for adaptability in the face of rapid market changes.
Organizational Responses: Companies like Amazon and Visa are redefining employee development, embracing flexible career models that prioritize rapid skill acquisition in diverse areas (3).
How Non-Routine Leaders™ Excel
Learning with Efficiency: Non-Routine Leaders™, as observed in ALLOY's study, excel by quickly acquiring deep expertise across multiple disciplines. They prioritize understanding best practice frameworks, which streamlines their journey to expertise.
A New Approach to Problem-Solving: These leaders approach problems by first identifying relevant frameworks, providing a comprehensive view that speeds up the learning process and enhances strategic thinking.
Case Study: An engineer tasked with marketing would, as a Non-Routine Leader™, first study established marketing frameworks, quickly grasping essential concepts. This method reduces the learning curve compared to prolonged trial and error.
Speed Up Your Learning with Non-Routine Leadership
Think Like an Expert: This skill is central to Non-Routine Leadership™, involving the rapid identification and application of frameworks to new challenges. It aligns with Ericsson's emphasis on the importance of quality mental representations for expert performance (6).
Actionable Steps: Start by asking, “What’s the framework for this?” when faced with a non-routine challenge. Leveraging established frameworks accelerates the path to expertise, surpassing traditional methods.
In conclusion, while Gladwell's 10,000-hour rule provided a clear path to mastery, the demands of today's world call for a more agile approach. Non-Routine Leadership™ offers a blueprint for rapid learning and adaptation, key to success in our dynamic and ever-changing landscape.
Research endnotes
1 Ericsson, K Anders. “GUEST POST: The Danger of Delegating Education to Journalists, K. Anders Ericsson.” Radical Eyes for Equity, 3 Nov. 2014, web.archive.org/web/20190320062202/https://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/guest-post-the-danger-of-delegating-education-to-journalists-k-anders-ericsson/.
2 Senge, Peter. The Fifth Discipline, vol. number, City of Publication*, Doubleday, 1990
3 Johnson, Dani, and Jen Stempel. “Careers and Learning: Real Time, All the Time.” Deloitte Insights, 28 Feb. 2017, www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends/2017/learning-in-the-digital-age.html.
4 Thomas, Douglas, and John Seely. Brown. A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change. Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, 2011.
5 Gratton, Lynda, and Andrew Scott. The 100-Year Life. Bloomsbury, 2016.
6 Ericsson, Anders K., and Robert Pool. Peak (p.61): Secrets from the new science of expertise, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016
*Thinking in frames is an old concept, originally coined by D.N. Perkins Professor of Education, Emeritus. However, we believe there is new-found relevancy and new implications for today’s non routine world. One of these implications we found was the ability to acquire deep expertise quickly. To learn more, read “The Non Routine Leader”.
