The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
“Operating at the edge of your ability, where you make mistakes - makes you smarter”
3 Main Messages:
Deep practice involves slowing down and chunking skills
Huge success are born when a spark is lit inside by watching someone else setting an example
Great teachers car deeply about their students and adapt their techniques as appropriate
Any of you who have learned a skill, be it a language, instrument, talent or sport, knows that you begin slowly, breaking longer skills into short sections, and increase confidence and capability as you go. I have just started learning to roller skate and am doing just this: short, slow (and very tentative and wobbly) skill building.
So, if we all know what it takes to be successful, then why aren’t we all hugely successful multilingual, musical, inventing Olympians? Some would say that it takes talent and skill to get there. In this book, Daniel Coyle explains ‘skill’ scientifically and helps us each to learn how to push our own boundaries. He breaks down the lessons learned from the greatest performers, sports stars and teachers of all time and looks at the paths and patterns that led to greatness.
The Talent Code is split into three sections and the first explores ‘Deep Practice.’ Coyle has visited, observed and interviewed at tennis schools in Moscow, vocal studios in Dallas, Football Fields in São Paolo to learn their lessons. He refers to these as “chicken wire Harvards” as they are rough and ready, yet propel some of the greatest talents into the world.
What he discovered was that the students here were “purposefully operating at the edges of their ability.” There would practice - stop - stumble - figure it out, creating an upward spiral of skill. He calls this ‘deeper practice’. Another observation he made was that they would “slow down and break skills into their components” and he calls this chunking - a practice well known to anyone who has learned something new by stumbling over a few short sections at a time, then speeding up and putting them all together.
Each time we do this, Coyle tells us, we are building Myelin. A “dense fat that wraps like electrical tape around a nerve fiber, preventing the electrical impulses from leaking out.” We have more Myelin when we are young, which is probably why it becomes harder for us to learn new things as we age and why it is vital that we DO continue to learn new skills in order to keep our brain healthy.
In addition to these behaviours, Coyle observed that those who have been incredibly successful have spent many hundreds of hours practicing - which aligns with Anders Ericsson’s ten thousand hours theory. When speaking with successful coaches, Coyle noted that their language about productive practice included words such as: attention,connect, build, alert, focus, edge and awake. Certainly their work is intentional and deliberate: focussed practice.
In the second section, Coyle explores the importance of ‘ignition’ as motivational fuel to inspire new students. He shares wonderful examples of true stories when whole communities have been inspired by the success of others who are just like them. He also explores the impact of family dynamics and birth order in creating additional fire, which has led to interesting patterns of success scattered across history in many varied fields.
The final section is titled ‘Master Coaching’, though, as a qualified coach, I would point out that he is referring to ‘teaching’ rather than ‘coaching’, which are two very different practices. He shares the Four Virtues of successful teachers and many examples of how individual teachers have inspired and grown talent and skill in others. The underlying theme is of strong, selfless relationships and connection. He noticed that “they listened more than they talked” and that they had “skill at sensing the student’s needs and instantly producing the right signal to meet those needs.”
And so what are the secrets of the most successful people of past and current generations? It is the combination of all three: a role model and moment of inspiration, an accomplished teacher and many hours of hard work. Afterall, as any ‘overnight success’ will tell you - they have spent years getting to where they are. There is no silver bullet and building skill takes time, resilience and determination. Time to strap on my skates and start practicing!
