The magic number is 10,000
Posted on 23 October 2011 - 08:24pm
Last updated on 24 October 2011 - 07:35am
Last updated on 24 October 2011 - 07:35am
TEN thousand.
That, according to research, is the magic number to become world class in whatever field one chooses. Whether it is to become a musician, sports player, programming specialist or top-notch executive.
Ten thousand hours of graft specialising on the skill of your job. I sat in on an operations meeting last week. The CEO had been having a discussion with one of his staff who wanted to leave the organisation because he could not see a career path. The CEO asked him a few questions — simple questions to "see where he (the employee) was coming from". Much to the dismay of the CEO, the employee revealed that he had only done a couple of installations since he joined this telecommunications company a year ago.
Needless to say, the operations meeting was not a happy one. One by one, the CEO went round the table and tabulated the number of installations each of the engineers had done in the past year. He found that the two senior engineers pretty much did all the work; the underlings simply watched their superiors whilst the installations were being done. I guessed these underlings also checked their Facebook and Twitter and Linked In instead of improving their skills.
Armed with knowledge I had acquired over the weekend reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, I revealed the research results Gladwell shares in his book. The secret to success is 10,000 hours of graft. The results of various research studies showed that to be truly world class in anything one does, one needs to invest about just over one year of one's life to become an expert in that field. And we are not talking about academic time. We are talking about time taken on the actual task.
In Outliers, Gladwell examines the success stories of Bill Gates, Bill Joy (who co-founded Sun Microsystems), The Beatles and others. And what he found common amongst all of them is the number of hours they spent working on their special skill. There were other factors that contributed to their success but without the investment of time, these people would not have made it to the top of their ladder.
The consequences of this research to companies, manufacturers, installers, service providers and others are very clear. The differentiator is training and focus. If an executive wants his or her business to be the best, they need to develop a culture where the employee is focused on his particular skill and keeps repeating it. It sounds straightforward. But how many companies actually track this.
Airlines do for their pilots. The medical profession does. The accounting profession does — kind of, although it is mainly for billing purposes. Consulting companies, IT companies and other service providers all also do some form of tracking but it is more for accounting than for training and performance improvement purposes.
So the challenge to companies wanting to be world class is straightforward.
How many hours does it take for your employee to be become world class?
The challenge to individuals is also simple.
How many hours are you willing to invest to be the best you can?
During one interview I saw on television, Sir Alex Ferguson recalled how Eric Cantona would continue practising after training had ended. He would practise his volleying, his kicking and various other skills. And this was from an established world-class player.
The companies that perform the best will spend the most. These companies however will spend wisely. When Jack Welch set about transforming General Electric, he cut headcount significantly. At the same time, he invested in their training centre at Crotonville because he believed that to make GE the best, he had to provide the best training possible. Six Sigma has saved Motorola (which developed this concept) more than US$17 billion in savings since 1986. The doctrine of Six Sigma is to continuously improve processes to reduce defects. To produce these savings, Motorola had to invest in this programme. Short-term pain but recurring long-term benefits.
When I looked at the success stories of individuals and companies, it all made sense. Successful companies have a differentiator from their competitors. They are able to produce a product more cheaply or at a better quality. They did not get there by accident. They got there because they followed a carefully laid-out plan which sets out to make them the best at what they do. And that involved an investment of time.
Just like Bill Gates. Just like Bill Joy. Just like The Beatles. The common denominator was 10,000. Hours, that is.
So, to all CEOs and the training departments of companies which want to be world class... just remember the magic number. Ten thousand.
Tony Pereira is a chartered accountant and CFO of a private venture fund
