Practice Perfect

FEEDBACK

One of the fastest ways to improve performance is to improve feedback. Consider the British home defense during World War II. The British military quickly came to rely on a group of “spotters” to identify incoming German air attacks. These spotters didn’t scan the skies. Instead, they listened carefully as aircraft approached, using their familiarity with engine sounds to determine whether a distant thrumming was a squadron of homeward-bound RAF planes or a bomb-laden sortie of enemy aircraft homing in on London. Reliable spotters were in short supply, so it wasn’t long before they were being urgently asked to train others. However, their first efforts at training ended in failure. They weren’t sure they could identify what they were ...