Are Habits Bad for Safety?

The debate about whether developing habits should be a goal in safety has been going on for decades. A recent article in Professional Safety (Making Safety a Mindful Value, Not a Mindless Habit, June…

Developing Skills Quickly with the Science of Behavior

There is an old saying that has always bothered me: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. If it's just a proverb to point out how important community is, I get it…

Is “Deskilling” a Threat to Safety in Your Workplace?

Maybe you’ve heard the term de-skilling. It refers to the loss of knowledge or skills on the part of a person as a result of technology doing more of the work for them.  In work environments…

Deliberate Practice Misunderstood: Will Bad Practice Make You Better?

It shouldn't come as a surprise to me that the topic of deliberate practice continues to find its way into the headlines. As a matter of fact, one of my most-read articles is one questioning Dr.…

The NFL Desperately Needs Skills in Changing Behavior that Matters

Over the last two weeks there have been at least 7 cases making the news about domestic abuse by NFL players. This week, there was an NYT editorial on abuse and its justification by too many men…

When Training to Competency Does Not Equal Competent Trainees

If you were to look at how your organization provides training, at what point are participants considered “competent” in the material? Or, better yet, do you even have a means for capturing this type…

Science is Everywhere: Including Mixed Martial Arts

Behavior is behavior is behavior…regardless of the job, hobby or any learning endeavor we spend our time and energy on there is a lot we can learn from those that master their own areas of interest.…

Getting New Employees Game Ready

The start of the school year is my favorite time of the year because it marks the start of the college football season. While college freshmen have plenty of adjustments to make, freshmen football…

Little Evidence of Talent in the Winter Olympics: Business should take a lesson

I watched a lot of the Olympics over the past two weeks and the skill levels were amazing.  There were not just a few skilled performers, there were many.  Often the difference between Gold…

Expert Performance: Apologies to Dr. Ericsson, But it is Not 10,000 Hours of Deliberate Practice

Dr. Anders Ericsson's research on expertise has finally received some good attention in Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers and Geoff Colvin's book, Talent Is Overrated. These books place a new…