Storytelling Practice and what bugs me about it Part 2

Storytelling and Techniques to Practice.

In my last blog, I wrote about two insights on Practice.

In this blog I want to focus only on one insight which I discovered via reading Angela Duckworth’s book Grit : The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Which type of Practice is a good predictor of skills development?

Practicing alone is a much better predictor of how quickly the skills are developed versus time spent practicing with others.

Let us try and understand this using an example 

I want to become a better runner. So, I practice running but when I practice with others we just run long distances . I can run long distances on my own too but perhaps it is far more enjoyable to run with others. I confuse the enjoyment with better practice.

With others I am practicing but not practicing to better a specific weak area. When I practice alone I pick an area that I know is my weakness – Pace of Running. So, I interval train and that is what makes my overall running better.

Unless your practice with others is focussed on making your weak areas better your practice will not result in better results. In my Storytelling Programs I used this insight to divide the group in cohorts of similar needs for practice and then I give them a scenario to work on which makes them work to better their areas of weakness.

If you judge practice by how much it improves your skills, then deliberate practice has no rival.

For the longest time I have felt unhappy about telling people to Practice without giving them methods to practice. I think it is important to learn how to practice.

Narrative’s Storytelling Trainings and Workshops are designed to include effective practice techniques 

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