Skip to main content

Work Tool: Talent Incubator

Hatching a Whole Lot of Talent.   

Background

In his book, The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle argues that "Greatness isn't born.  It's grown."  He focuses on three key aspects: Deep Practice, Ignition, and Master Coaching.

That got me thinking about how to put such ideas into practice.  The term 'Talent Incubator' kept coming to mind.  So here are my first ideas on how to set up a personal talent incubator.

Theory

Pieces*:

  • Deep Practice–Everyone knows that practice is a key to success. What everyone doesn’t know is that specific kinds of practice can increase skill up to ten times faster than conventional practice.
  • Ignition–We all need a little motivation to get started. But what separates truly high achievers from the rest of the pack? A higher level of commitment—call it passion—born out of our deepest unconscious desires and triggered by certain primal cues. Understanding how these signals work can help you ignite passion and catalyze skill development.
  • Master Coaching–What are the secrets of the world’s most effective teachers, trainers, and coaches? Discover the four virtues that enable these “talent whisperers” to fuel passion, inspire deep practice, and bring out the best in their students.
*taken from the book summary in the link above):

Set-up:

  • Put together list of targets
  • Tools/skills needed for each target
  • Practice routine draft
  • Ways to increase contacts in practice routine
  • Ways to increase speed in practice routine
  • Set up ‘incubator’
    • Small, like room with whiteboards turned into mini room 
    • Markers for writing on board
    • Drawing pad and markers
    • Single-minded focus of a laptop with only a few tabs up
    • Music (at first)
  • Schedule time to incubate
  • Follow up with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards (create system as needed)
  • Seek out mentoring
    • Video of top members of the field
    • Skill share
    • Etc.


Action

List of targets:

  • Intuitive Coding
  • Statistical Methods
  • Scientific Writing
  • Hypothesis Generation
  • Experimental Design
  • Public Speaking
  • Grant Writing


Tools/skills needed for each target:

  • Intuitive Coding - tutorials on coding, coding environment (IDE), challenges for coding, proper coding languages
  • Statistical Methods - list of greatest weaknesses, list of greatest strengths, mathematical foundations of methods, ruthless determination for visualization, summary, and fitting
  • Scientific Writing - general principles of writing, examples of great papers, topics to write on
  • Hypothesis Generation - summary of what's already been done on the topic, list of at least 10 ways to improve it, schedule to try out ways, progress marker
  • Experimental Design- books on good experimental design, examples of papers with good experimental design, types of experimental design, target to create experimental designs for
  • Public Speaking - videos of great public speakers, topics to speak on, venues to practice speaking (enough stakes)
  • Grant Writing- handbook, training forms, grant targets to actually write for


Steps:

  • Practice routine draft
  • Ways to increase contacts in practice routine
  • Ways to increase speed in practice routine

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creative Tool: Idea Mutation

It's mutating out of control!   Here is another wild method of improving the creativity of ideas through the process of introducing random 'mutations'.  I call it Idea Mutation. Method: Start with an idea.  Add it to a circle on the far left side of a piece of paper.  That is round 1. Make two branches off the first idea.  Each branch has a new circle.  That is round 2. For each branch, roll a 10-sided dice and select the 'mutation' from the table below. For each branch, create a 'mutated' idea incorporating that branch's mutation. Continue branching and mutation ideas for subsequent rounds (3, 4, etc.). Modifications: Include different mutations (ex. Add Thrill, More Collaborative, Clearer, etc.) Add null mutation (no changes for certain branches) Change probability of mutations (same mutation for more than one number) Examples:
Post a Comment
Read more

Creative Tool: Idea Bracket

Let the Best Idea Win. How to generate great ideas?  Why not create an Idea Bracket ?  It is analogous to a sports league play-off.  Ideas are pitted against each other, with the winning idea moving on to the next round.  The last idea standing is the winner. I do have a few additional rules.  The Three M's : Modify, Merge, and Markup.  These rules allow for both idea modification and saving sub-winner ideas. Simple enough, right?  Let's try it out on some examples. Story Beginning Location Floating City and Haunted Graveyard merged into Floating Graveyard Screaming Wastelands modified into Blasted Wastelands Winner was Floating Graveyard and Sundered Titan merged into Floating Graveyard of Titans Artistic Inspiration Shack Brainstorming and Review Idea/Notes merged to Shack Review Ideas TCG View modified to TCG Mashup Shack Review Ideas marked for later Monster App and Walk and Song merged to Walk and Song with Monster App Priming Winner was T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Writing Tool: Panic Cards

For writing emergencies only... In a previous post , I created a break-in-case of emergency box for days where I'm severely struggling to get my writing goal in.   In case that box is not enough, or if I'm away from my house, I've devised another emergency method to keep me from veering off my writing track. Panic Cards. What are they?  Simple.  Index cards cut in half with encouraging phrases on one side. The other side has a small, randomized reward for completing the writing task.  I made it random on purpose to increase the intrigue. To use them, I pull out the card, read the phrase of encouragement, and get the writing done.  Once the thirty minutes of writing is completed, I turn over the card and reap the reward. Silly?  Maybe.  Effective?  Time will tell.  It's better to have an emergency plan and never use it than to not have one when an emergency comes calling.
Post a Comment
Read more