Practice Perfect:

42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better

By Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway, & Katie Yezzi (Jossey-Bass, 2012)
S.O.S.

(A Summary of the Summary )

The main ideas of the book are:

~ This book is about the transformative power of practice to improve skills.
~ The authors introduce 42 rules to teach you how to make practice in any organization from a school to a
sports team the most effective it can be.
Why I chose this book:
While there are many books that examine the practices of successful organizations to glean lessons that can be applied
to other organizations, this is the first (that I know of) written by educators. By looking at expertise from fields that
range from baking to surgery, they come up with a novel idea for those of us in education: perhaps we can get better
through practice. Most educators think practice works well for a basketball team, but not for us.
Think about our professional development. As the authors write, Teachers listen, reflect, discuss, and debate, but they
do not practice. Maybe this is why many of our schools get mediocre results. As schools and districts, perhaps we are
not doing a good enough job helping our teachers improve. By introducing practice, perhaps we can better equip our
teachers to meet the increasing demands in education today.
I also chose the book because its written in a compelling, Malcolm Gladwell-style format with lots of engaging
anecdotes from sports, medicine, business, and other fields. The summary cant possibly capture all of these great
stories youll have to grab a copy of the book to delve into those!

The Scoop (In this summary you will learn)

How to rethink some incorrect assumptions you may have about practice
How to make small changes in the way you conduct practice sessions so teachers can get more out of them
How to maximize your use of modeling in teaching new skills
How to provide feedback so it accelerates improvement
How to make sure participants actually implement the new skills theyve learned after the practice session is over
PD suggestions from The Main Idea that will help you get your teachers to actually practice their teaching and your school
leaders to actually practice supervising/coaching in PD meetings.

www.TheMainIdea.net

The Main Idea 2014. All rights reserved. By Jenn David-Lang

Introduction
When the three authors spent time training teachers to become great teachers, they stumbled upon the old-fashioned idea of practice.
In Doug Lemovs first book, Teach Like a Champion, he examined the practices of successful teachers and then described those
practices in the book. Then, when introducing the techniques of champion teachers in workshops to other teachers, the authors found
that although the new teachers learned a lot, the ideas did not really stick and were seldom applied in the classroom. The authors
realized that instead of what is usually done in teacher workshops listening, reflecting, discussing, and debating in order to
improve, teachers would need to practice. And yet, teachers simply dont practice. They have workshops and professional
development but they dont actively practice what they learn. What if instead of teaching teachers about certain techniques, we
actually had them practice those techniques in a practice session? Teachers go live several times a day, and yet rarely do they
practice for this performance.
This book is not just for educators. It is peppered with interesting examples of practice from all walks of life. For example, basketball
coach John Wooden, called the Greatest Coach of the 20th Century, is renowned for his obsession with practice. Arguably that
practice paid off because he led his teams to ten national championships in twelve years! He focused on every aspect of practice, even
areas others have overlooked. Not only did he have his players start by practicing without a ball in order to slowly build up their skills,
but he even had players practice putting on shoes and socks because a rumpled sock, while a seemingly small issue, could lead to
blisters that hurt performance. Overall, this book introduces 42 rules and countless examples from all fields to help readers improve
their own practice as well as the practices of those who work in their organizations. By understanding the power of improving small
things, you can end up with tremendous results in your organization. Because of the limitations of space in this summary, only about
half of the rules are presented here.

Part I Rethinking Practice

This section helps us re-examine our assumptions about practice. One assumption we might have is that the more people practice, the
better they get. For example, in looking at a youth soccer practice you might see a bunch of busy kids dribbling a ball through a set of
cones. It looks like theyre busy thats good, right? However, what you dont see is that many of them are dribbling incorrectly.
They have their knees locked. Therefore, the more they continue practicing like this the more they will get used to handling the ball
incorrectly. Are they working hard? Yes. Are they improving? Unlikely. Rather, they are getting better at doing it wrong. So in fact, it
would be more useful to practice less if the kids were practicing the CORRECT moves. Below are some of the assumptions we often
have about practice that may be helpful to rethink.
Rule 1: Encode Success
The goal of practicing should be to encode success. As the example above with the soccer practice shows, if you practice the wrong
moves over and over, then your practice certainly does not make perfect; in fact, it just makes those wrong moves permanent.
Whatever we are teaching, we certainly dont want to encode failure, we want to encode success. However, there are problems with
the way we currently practice that unfortunately lead to failure. First, we cant know if our students (or coaches or employees, etc.) are
practicing correctly unless we regularly and frequently check in. In teaching, to check that students understand, we check for
understanding. Therefore, we need to build in some type of check for understanding. Second, if a participant is failing to perform
something correctly, she must be given an opportunity to try it again. This can happen right away during the activity or later during a
one-to-one practice session, but it is a vital ingredient to encode success. Third, if your training includes five different skills, there are
too many skills to determine how successful the participants are at each individual task. Without this awareness, failure gets encoded.
Fourth, we end up encoding failure when the task we assign is too difficult. If the task is way beyond the learners level, then we are
unlikely to be setting up participants to practice correct moves. If youre trying to learn to hit a baseball and the coach starts with
pitches that are 100 miles per hour, you will most likely swing desperately rather than incrementally improve your hitting. Finally, the
flip side is when you provide a task that is too easy, then participants get everything right all of the time and you end up wasting their
time.
Rule 2: Practice the 20
In economics, the 80/20 rule states that 80 percent of the results come from 20 percent of the sources. What this means is that you
should spend more time practicing the 20 percent of the actions that yield the most results in your organization. Practice those 20
percent obsessively. We need to learn to become great at the most important things. Well, how do we find what activities make up that
20 percent? For example, in teaching, which math skills are the most important to have our students master perfectly? The answer can
come from experience, research, or data. You dont need to find the top experts in the field, but you can survey a group of informed
people. Bring your top math teachers together and ask them to name the top five skills. Note that the 20 percent will include different
actions over time. For example, the president of The New Teacher Project identified a very important top 20 percent skill from his
observations. He found that new teachers who were unable to master classroom management in the first two months often never
succeeded. Therefore he redesigned his new teacher training to focus more heavily on this vital skill at the beginning of the year.
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Rule 5: Replace Your Purpose with an Objective

While a purpose and an objective may appear to be the same, there are four important differences. First, an objective is measurable. In
basketball your purpose may be to work on passing, however an objective might be to be able to pass the ball accurately on the
ground for distances of twenty yards. With a measurable objective, you can clearly tell at the end of a practice session whether
youve succeeded. Second, an objective is manageable. You couldnt possibly expect your players to master passing in a one-hour
practice session, but they could master one aspect of passing in an hour. Third, an objective should come with one or two areas to
focus on to ensure participants do it right. For example, with passing you might want to tell your players to lock their ankles when
striking the ball and to follow through with their knee raised. Finally, an objective is made before the activities are designed. You
cant know which is the appropriate activity until youve designed the objective. In fact, in one school the principal asked the teachers
what percent of the time they spent planning objectives and what percent they spent planning activities. Most teachers said they spent
the vast majority of the time planning activities and only 5 to 20 percent of the time planning objectives. However, the most successful
teacher said he spent 80 to 90 percent of his planning time mapping out the objective.
Rule 8: Correct Instead of Critique
The difference between a correction and a critique is that a critique merely tells the person what to do better while a correction
involves going back and doing it again as soon as possible in order to improve. Simply telling someone she did something wrong
doesnt guarantee that she can now do it better. Only by allowing people to perform the correction until they can do it better will it
train them to succeed. Interestingly, correction does not even require a coach or a teacher people can self-correct based on their own
observations and repeat the task again until they improve.

Part II How to Practice

The first section of the book addressed changes in our thinking about what makes practice effective. This section delves into the
changes we need to make in how we practice in order to make it more effective. Especially for leaders of organizations, this section
will help you think through how to design practice so it will improve staff performance.
Rule 9: Analyze the Game
The first step in figuring out how to practice to become great is to look at those who are top performers. The skills they already have
are the skills you want to develop in your organization. However, it is not enough to simply look at the stars. You need to analyze their
performance to understand the skills theyve developed to make them great. This is what happened in the book and movie Moneyball
about the incredible ascent of the Oakland As. The manager, Billy Beane, and his assistant carefully examined the skills that won
games and used this knowledge to build a winning team. However, in addition to identifying these skills, you need to break them
down into more specific skills and figure out which ones are the most important. Without knowledge of these specific, actionable
steps, we often end up providing vague guidance for our staff, Have high expectations! or Teach from your heart! One of the
authors, Doug Lemov, has outlined the skills of the top teachers in his network of schools. These skills are described in his previous
book, Teach Like a Champion. (See The Main Ideas summary of this book.)
Rule 10: Isolate the Skill
Many real-world skills are quite complex. Take surgery. Before working on a patient, medical students spend countless hours
practicing all of the component skills: how to hold the surgical instrument, how to make the knots, how to close wounds, how to suture
through scar tissue, how to select suture materials, and how to suture when drains and tubes are needed. While the ultimate goal is to
put together all of these skills, in the interim, it helps to practice each technique in isolation. Unfortunately, most organizations expect
employees to perform complex skills without ever having isolated the requisite skills and giving them opportunities to practice these
one at a time. This doesnt mean staff should only practice skills in isolation. In fact, the opposite is true. Rule 12 states that after
practicing isolated skills, staff should be given the opportunity to practice skills in concert in as authentic a context as possible.
Rule 13: Make a Plan
When you have a practice session with staff, you need to plan it out. Almost all managers, leaders, and coaches will map out some
kind of agenda with time slots for different activities, but what makes a good plan? There are three things that are well worth taking
the time to do when planning your practices:
(1) Plan with data-driven objectives in mind: How do you know what your group needs to practice? In the documentary, The Heart
of the Game, coach Bill Resler illustrates the importance of using data to improve the performance of the Roosevelt High School girls
basketball team. He watched videotapes late into the night to analyze exactly which skills both individuals and the team needed to
practice. This is a common pitfall for many leaders. They dont realize the importance of using data to drive their planning for
practice. Rather than planning for what your staff wants, use data to plan training around what your staff needs based on the data
youve gathered.
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(2) Plan Down to the Last Minute: Plans that lead to successful practice are designed carefully and thoroughly. Nothing is left to
chance. Each segment should include an objective, the activity, the number of minutes needed, and the necessary materials. If this
isnt time-consuming enough, to be most effective you should also map out precisely what you will say and how you anticipate
participants will respond. While planning with this level of detail takes time, it is well worth it to make your session effective.
(3) Rehearse and Revise the Plan: In addition to having your staff practice, you as the leader will need to practice, too. Try it out.
Rehearse it. And remember to scrap, revise, or simplify what doesnt work. The time you put into preparing, practicing, and revising
in advance, the more likely the practice session will be effective.

Part III Using Modeling

One component of practice that is very effective at the beginning of teaching a new skill is modeling. Think of someone who is baking
bread for the first time. There arent that many steps, but imagine a novice reading that he needs to proof the yeast what? Or he
needs to let the dough sit and rise, then punch it down you need to punch dough?! This is where modeling can be extremely
helpful. Think of the success of cooking shows. They provide a model of the skills and techniques you need to be successful in the
kitchen. This section presents eight rules (four of which are included in the summary) to help you include modeling as part of practice.
Rule 15: Model and Describe
Modeling alone is not enough for a novice to learn a new skill. While modeling does show how to do something correctly, by adding a
description, the instructor can break the task into smaller parts and explain what it is she is doing each step of the way. Of course, just
providing the description without modeling also would not be sufficient to learn the new skill. Like with the steps for baking bread
above, description alone leaves too much of the learning to chance.
Rule 16: Call Your Shots
Many organizations use shadowing to train individuals. And while shadowing can be an extremely useful form of modeling, it can be
completely useless if you neglect one crucial step if you dont call your shots. What this means is that you should make crystal
clear what you want your staff members to look for and learn from a model. Without this, the learner may end up observing useless
things. For example, we often send struggling teachers to observe our strong teachers. However, if they dont know what to look for
they may end up focusing on the posters in the room rather than the way the teacher gives clear directions. Instead, you should take the
time to prepare them ahead of time for what they should be observing.
A dean at a school knew she was going to do a workshop on delivering precise praise to students in the upcoming weeks. She
decided to model this skill in the hallways before the workshop. However, to make sure the teachers got the most from this modeling,
she sent them a memo outlining what she would be doing and what they should be observing for in other words, she called her shot.
Rule 18: Try Supermodeling
Some foreign language teachers conduct their entire classes in the foreign language in order to accelerate the learning, even when they
are teaching one discrete skill. In the same way, even when you are modeling one skill, you may also decide to model other skills you
are not currently teaching in order to accelerate future learning. For example, if you are in business you might decide to provide
professional development for your sales managers on the topic of motivation. However, by supermodeling additional skills that the
managers will also need to learn such as how to give feedback, how to present to a group, and how to manage your time in a
presentation you will speed up their learning.
Rule 22: Get Ready for Your Close-Up
One way to make sure you are providing the best model possible is to use video. If you send someone to watch a colleague in action,
you dont know if the modeling will go according to plan. However, if you tape the colleague you can cut and edit the video to make
sure you are modeling precisely what you want to model for the novice. Furthermore, you can watch the video together and discuss
what you would like to come out of the observation. These videos do not need expert editing. Although it may take extra time, using
videos will provide a helpful tool to improve the modeling at your organization.

Part IV Feedback
In addition to modeling, feedback is another useful component of practice. In fact, when done well, feedback can actually accelerate
improvement! However, there are a number of pitfalls when giving feedback: sometimes we give too much feedback, we give
feedback that is too vague, or we wait too long to give the feedback. This section addresses all of these issues and more to ensure the
feedback we give propels performance forward.

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Rule 23: Practice Using Feedback (Not Just Getting It)

It is common for people to get feedback, in fact, they get it all the time. However, its actually much rarer for people to use it. They
may be skeptical about the effectiveness of the feedback, so they simply nod and smile when their boss is giving them feedback, but
then do nothing. Or, they may honestly intend to apply the feedback, but then it slips their mind in the midst of everything else they
have to do. As a leader, you can help employees get used to using feedback by creating a culture of accountability. When giving
feedback, ask the staff member when and where she intends to use it. Then at your next meeting, follow up by asking how many times
she tried it. Furthermore, when introducing a new skill, make sure that part of your professional development involves having
participants get feedback and then practicing using that feedback during the session. This can be hard when organizations believe that
the idea of practice does not apply to them. However, practice can be effective in many fields. For example, lets say you supervise a
manager who needs to have a difficult conversation about an employees performance. You can sit down with this manager and roleplay the conversation. Furthermore, by giving feedback in the moment and asking the manager to incorporate that feedback into an
additional role-play, youll not only improve the chances that this conversation will succeed, but you will show the manager the
importance of using your feedback.
Rule 25: Shorten the Feedback Loop
When feedback is given weeks or months after the event, it is not as useful. The sooner you can give feedback, the better. John
Wooden, the successful UCLA coach, believed that if feedback was not given immediately, then the correction was useless. Each
minute that passed after making an error, a basketball players mind and body would forget the situation. Think about it. If an
employee makes a mistake in a meeting and then finds out about it three months later in a performance review, this is useless!
Rule 26: Use the Power of Positive
We often assume that giving feedback is about correcting whats wrong. However, feedback can be a powerful tool when it is used to
focus on and build on what is right rather than what is wrong. But the problem is that when we focus on what is right, we tend to give
vague praise rather than useful feedback. For example, we might say, You did that well. Great job! However, this type of positive
feedback by itself rarely moves performance forward. To modify this feedback so it becomes useful, add the following three tools:
1. A statement of identification
2. A statement of application
3. A statement of replication
For example, if you are helping your daughter, Danielle, field ground balls to practice softball skills, you might be temped to say the
following, You did that well, Danielle! Keep it up! But what is it exactly? How will she know what to do? Consider the following
statements instead:
Good, Danielle. You moved your feet quickly and got behind the ball. Keep it up. (Statement of identification)
Good. You really got your feet behind the ball. Now try to do the same thing going to your left. (Statement of replication)
Good, Danielle. Ten in a row! Youre doing so well, so lets work on a couple of other ways you could use a quick start and
small steps. (Statement of application)
What people do right in practice can be as important as what they do wrong in figuring out next steps for improvement.
Rule 27: Limit Yourself
We often have so much we want to share when giving someone feedback. Imagine the tennis pro who starts by saying, There are nine
things you must make sure to do to hit a forehand. Theres no way you can keep nine things in your head when hitting a forehand.
Despite this, it can be hard to restrain ourselves when giving feedback. Everyone likes to feel they have a lot to share when coaching.
However, as the authors write, is it important to tame your inner expert because too much feedback simply backfires. Instead, focus
on the one or two most important things that should be improved. In one school, the leadership team (the principal, department chairs
and grade-level leaders) shares the responsibility of giving feedback to teachers. However, in an effort not to overwhelm teachers with
too much disparate feedback, they come together and agree to provide feedback on only two things each teacher should be working on
to improve.
Rule 29: Describe the Solution (Not the Problem)
To ensure that people actually use feedback (see Rule 23), make sure your feedback goes beyond describing the problem and instead,
actually gives concrete, actionable solutions to the problem. For example, telling a staff member to stop being so abrasive doesnt
point him in the direction of what to actually do. Unfortunately, our feedback is often given in the form of what not to do. Look at the
examples below with the accompanying suggestions for solutions:
REPLACE: Describing the problem
Dont overhit.
Dont get caught out of position.
Dont say tactless things in meetings.

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WITH: Describing the solution

Take a steady, even swing.
Make sure youre between your man and your goal.
When someone tells you what country they are from, just say
you are honored or happy to meet them.
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Part V Culture of Practice

How much people embrace practice has a lot to do with the context. If an organization intentionally creates a culture of practice,
there is a much greater likelihood that practice will become a regular occurrence. For example, Dr. Yoon Kang carefully and
purposefully created a culture of practice at the Ian Smith Clinical Skills Center at the Weill Cornell Medical College. Although
medical schools are supposed to be where students learn the practice of medicine, they have not always been set up to allow students
to practice in order to improve. Instead, medical schools have historically been set up for students to sink or swim. However, Dr. Kang
was committed to students learning through practice, so not only did she have students practice diagnosing an actor-patient, but she
created a training facility with the space for faculty to observe and give feedback to the students working with these actor-patients.
Rule 31: Normalize Error
John Wooden said, When you punish your people for making a mistake or falling short of a goal, you create an environment of
extreme caution, even fearfulness. Failure is a normal part of learning and should not be presented as something to avoid at all costs.
For example, a teenager once asked an excellent skier if she ever fell on the slopes. When the skier thought about it, she realized she
didnt. Rather than this being a good thing, she came to understand that she was not pushing herself to the next level because she
wasnt willing to fall. Once she decided to forge ahead with the next skill she needed to tackle keeping her shoulders facing down
the mountain regardless of how steep it was she allowed herself to fall (i.e. fail). When she pushed herself to the point of falling, not
only did she fall, but that was the breakthrough moment when she actually got better. We need to create organizations where people
can take thoughtful risks and feel comfortable failing in front of their peers. Research shows that this is what will help them improve.
However, in order for staff to feel comfortable making errors in front of peers, we need to normalize error in our organizations.
So, what does it look like to normalize error? It means that we challenge people to move ahead and accept it when they make an error.
When they inevitably do make errors, we need to respond in a way that supports their continued growth. Below are some examples:
Framing error with the right language and the right tone
Im so glad you did that; its one of the most common mistakes that we make when trying X.
You did that for all of the right reasons; what you need to look out for is X.
You did just what I did when I first learned X.
Note that this doesnt mean that its OK to leave errors uncorrected. One of things that great teachers do is to create a culture in which
error is normalized. However, they dont simply state, Thats OK, sweetheart, that was a hard problem. Its OK you got it wrong.
Instead, they prompt students to continue to try until they get it correct. For example, they might say, Try reading that sentence again.
The sound should be a short i. When a teacher does this publicly, it sends a message to the rest of the class that not only is it
acceptable to fail and try again, but this is a regular part of learning.
Rather than being surprised when failure happens at your organization because it inevitably will occur make sure you have
carefully built a culture that normalizes error and uses it as an opportunity to learn.
Rule 34: Everybody Does It
If you want to build a culture of practice, as the leader you cant simply sit back and watch. Instead, you need to be in there practicing,
taking risks, and trying new things along with your employees. Not only does this model risk-taking and a commitment to
improvement, but it also shows that the leader is willing to expose him or herself, make errors, and accept feedback. If this makes you
nervous, one thing you can do is to say that you are going to model a B+ version in which you intentionally make a few mistakes.
This not only takes the pressure off of you, but it also allows participants to practice giving feedback while you model accepting
feedback. At the end, it is helpful to show that the leader is willing to be corrected by asking, What is something I could have done
better? If this question is met with blank faces because people are not used to finding fault with the leader, then try something like, I
know there were at least three things I could have improved. Whats one of them?
Rule 35: Leverage Peer-to-Peer Accountability
One critical way to help create a culture of practice is to build in peer-to-peer accountability. For example, in one successful school,
teachers regularly choose from an identified list of areas they would like to improve. They then work in small teams to come up with
commitments to each other for ways they will practice in order to achieve their goals. By having your teams set goals and hold one
another accountable, this will increase the likelihood that staff will commit to practicing and improving.

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Rule 37: Praise the Work

Earlier in the book, the idea of one-on-one praise was introduced. Its also important to think about the role of praise and positive
feedback on the organizational level as well. While praise has the power to incentivize good practice, done incorrectly, it can be
meaningless or even backfire. For example, psychologist Carol Dweck is known for her research in which she shows it can be
problematic when we praise children for a character trait instead of an action, such as being smart instead of persevering. As a result
of this, students may perform worse because they do not believe that their achievement is within their own control. Therefore, instead
of saying, Youre smart, we should be saying, You worked hard on that problem.
Furthermore, when we give positive feedback, its important to distinguish between acknowledging behavior that simply meets an
acceptable standard versus praising a behavior that actually exceeds it. For example, when students meet certain expectations, it is
important to acknowledge this: Thanks for helping your classmate, or Thanks for cleaning the dishes. However, save praise for
those instances when people go beyond what is expected, That was fantastic of you to clear and clean all of our dishes tonight! or
You were outstanding in how you delivered that really difficult message today in the staff meeting. Everyone knows when praise is
false, so save it for the times when it is warranted.
Another way to ensure that praise is most effective is to use it publicly. Not only does this bring the recipient the public recognition he
or she deserves, but it sends a message to everyone else about what your organization values. One way to do this is to create systems
of recognition at your organization. Whether through a weekly e-mail in which you praise one employee a week or through a public
bulletin board in which employees have the opportunity to praise each other, a system of recognition will enhance your culture of
practice.

Part VI Post-Practice: Making New Skills Stick

Lots of organizations have had the experience of training staff and even getting positive feedback about this training. Unfortunately,
when staff return to work, they go back to business as usual without implementing anything new. The problem is often not with the
training but with what happens after the practice is over. Managers often go back to their old ways and do not hold employees
accountable for the new skills theyve learned. Drive-by trainings simply dont work. As leaders we need to take the time to follow up
once our trainings are over to ensure that new skills stick a term popularized in Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. They wrote
about how to make ideas stick so they will be remembered and understood; now as leaders we need to find ways to make skills stick.
Rule 38: Look for the Right Things
In order to ensure that staff implement a skill that was introduced in a training session, you need to observe for it in actual practice and
give feedback specifically on that skill. This will hold staff accountable for what they learned because they will be expected to use it.
To help you look for the right things, you may want to use an observation template, tool, or rubric that outlines the specific skills
you will be looking for. Additionally, it helps to be transparent about what you are looking for, As I watch you teach today, Ill be
looking to see how youre doing with redirecting off-task behavior Furthermore, this type of transparency helps the employee hold
him or herself accountable as well.
Rule 41: Walk the Line (Between Support and Demand)
Leaders must find a delicate balance in their work. On the one hand, when its time to practice, they need to allow their staff to learn
and practice in a judgment-free way that allows them to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. It must be a safe environment
for staff to accept feedback and try again. However, once staff step back into the real world of implementing practice, then the leader
becomes the evaluator. They still provide feedback, but now they do so with a sense of urgency particularly when employees dont
meet standards. In balancing your demands and support as a leader, be sure to communicate clearly that you want your employee to
succeed, and you will do your best to support him or her, but that ultimately, you are the evaluator.
Rule 42: Measure Success
In his book Better, Atul Gawande shows how a simple measurement has saved countless lives. One in thirty children died in childbirth
in the 1930s until the advent of the Apgar score in 1953 a score that quickly encapsulates the overall health of a newborn. This
measurement very clearly and efficiently conveyed which newborns needed immediate assistance and saved millions of lives. In the
same way, it is extremely helpful to be able to measure the success of putting a certain practice into place, whether it is for the
basketball court, the operating room, or the classroom. While a coach might have a general sense of how her team performed, We
played well, or We had trouble on defense, in order to determine which skills need to be practiced, the coach needs more precise
information. It is helpful to gather data on the skill youve introduced. How many players made diagonal runs? How many teachers
implemented the technique 100 Percent? Basically, collecting and measuring data on how staff perform in post-practice will allow you
to evaluate your own effectiveness in training them. It is not enough to have staff self-report after a practice session. Ultimately you
want to know which techniques are being implemented and whether they are impacting performance.
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Conclusion: The Monday Morning Test

There are 42 rules in this book, so to help you figure out which steps to take first that is, what you can do Monday morning the
authors have outlined a few rules you can start with, depending on your particular situation. If you are a leader, the first set of rules
will help you to begin application and implementation. If you work either one-on-one or with a small group, the second set of rules is
for you. And if you are an individual who is looking to improve your own practice, the last set is designed for you.
MONDAY MORNING FOR ORGANIZATIONS
If you are a leader or part of an organization, below are some rules you can start with on Monday morning: Rule 2: Practice the 20,
Rule 10: Isolate the Skill, Rule 11: Name It, and Rule 16: Call Your Shots.
To begin, you will need to identify the most important (top 20%) of the skills in your organization that are responsible for 80% of the
results (Rule 2). If you dont know what these are, although its not the most scientific approach, you can send out an email on
Monday morning asking everyone in your organization, What are the three most important skills we all need to have in order to be
successful? Then you will want to take each of these top skills and break them down (Rule 10). For example, if one of those skills is
effectively communicate with clients, then you might break this down into: using eye contact, narrowing the scope of presentations,
active listening, and more. If you can give each of these top skills a name (Rule 11), then these names will become shorthand everyone
quickly and easily understands to mean the requisite skills and concepts they need to practice and learn. Finally, make sure you model
these skills (Rule 16) as well as model your willingness to expose yourself to practice in front of others and solicit feedback.
In addition to these starter rules, you should know that change does not come quickly to an organization. Furthermore, there will be
some staff who resist. It will help if you anticipate who may resist and what concerns they might have. Certainly modeling, yourself,
will be useful, but you may need to allow certain staff members to practice in private before they practice in public.
MONDAY MORNING FOR A MENTEE OR SMALL TEAM
Law school often graduates students who have learned a lot about the law, but who have had little legal training. As one general
counsel of a major corporation said, The fundamental issue is that law schools are producing people who are not capable of being
counselors. They are lawyers in the sense that they have law degrees, but they arent ready to be a provider of services. For example,
they may know all about contracts but be unable to sit in a meeting and draft a contract that different parties will agree to. This is the
case in many other types of professions as well. So organizations may find themselves needing to use practice to train individuals or
small groups. To get started with one person and one skill, take a look at Rule 7: Differentiate Drill from Scrimmage, Rule 23:
Practice Using Feedback, and Rule 22: Get Ready for Your Close-up.
Rather than having legal associates practice asking an entire list of questions, have them focus on asking just five questions (that will
help them win the deposition) (Rule 7). Dont rush to scrimmage; rather, focus on isolated skills first. Furthermore, while you may be
used to giving feedback, try having the person you supervise use the feedback immediately by practicing again (Rule 23). This will
help you see if your feedback was clear, if the person was able to use it, and if the feedback, in fact, improved the performance.
Finally, use videotape (Rule 22) so the staff member can watch the video, reflect on his performance, and then practice again including
any changes to improve the skill.
MONDAY MORNING FOR YOURSELF
Even top performers continue to practice and strive to improve. If you want to improve your own skills, consider beginning with Rule
17: Seek Believable Models, Rule 23: [Seek and] Practice Using Feedback, Rule 4: Unlock Creativity, and Rule 31: Normalize Error.
To begin, look for a role model, but dont just go to the symphony to hear great musicians perform. Actually go behind the scenes to
see how they became great (a modification of Rule 17). You can start simply by using YouTube. For example, Monday morning,
search for Itzhak Perlman Practicing. Then seek out some kind of coach or peer to give you feedback, and immediately practice
using this feedback (Rule 23). If you practice those skills you are weaker at, this will free up your time so you can be more creative
(Rule 4). Finally, its important that you normalize error (Rule 31) for yourself. Like the skier introduced earlier, push yourself out of
your comfort zone have that difficult conversation with your boss or increase the challenge of your violin piece by bumping up the
speed on your metronome.
This is a challenging time when teachers are increasingly being held accountable for their work. What if the reason some of them get
mediocre results is not because they are lazy, but because their schools or districts simply dont know how to help them get better? It
is an essential role of organizations to help their people get better. In fact, as the authors write, The capacity to develop people and
make them better is, you could argue, the best measure of an organizations worth. They argue that when organizations know
effective methods, they often fail to implement them because they dont have their staff practice very much.

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THE MAIN IDEAS PD Suggestions for Practice Perfect

This book makes the claim that individuals can get better if they practice. However, most PD in schools involves listening, reflecting,
discussing, anything other than actually practicing! Consider conducting PD in which your teachers and staff actually practice.

For Teachers to actually practice teaching

I. Incorporating Student Practice into Lesson Plans
Help your teachers review their lesson plans to see if they are supporting the idea of students practicing in class. Ask them to bring the
next lesson they plan to teach to your next PD meeting. Then, have teachers determine how successfully they have incorporated the
following into their lesson plans and share their responses to the questions below in pairs.
(Rule 1: Encode Success) Does your lesson ensure that students are practicing new skills correctly?
(1) Does the lesson plan include a way to check for understanding so you will know early in the lesson if students are
practicing correctly?
(2) Does the plan have time built in for students to try again if they are, in fact, doing something incorrectly?
(3) Does the plan focus on few enough skills so you can determine if students are practicing correctly?
(4) Are the tasks at the right level so students are not way out of their league and guessing desperately or they arent
practicing skills that are so easy that they are wasting their time?
(Rule 5: Replace Your Purpose with an Objective) At the end of the lesson, you wont know if your students have practiced
correctly unless you replace your purpose (Be able to pass a ball) with an objective (Be able to pass the ball accurately on the
ground for distances of 20 yards.) Would you say your lesson plan is built around a purpose or an objective?
(Rule 8: Correct Instead of Critique) Its not enough to tell students they are wrong. They need time to make corrections, that is,
go back and try the skill again as soon as possible. Is your lesson structured in a way (with independent or group work time) so you
can go around and correct rather than critique? And does the plan include time for students to make the corrections?

II. Practicing Teaching

To incorporate teacher practice into PD, have teachers actually practice teaching a skill to their peers. Put teachers in groups of five
and have one teacher at a time present to the other four (who will role-play students).
(Rules 10 and 13: Isolate the Skill and Make a Plan) Ask teachers to choose a single skill they want to teach their students and
create a detailed 10-minute plan for practicing to teach this skill to their peers (who will act like students). The 10-minute plan
should have a clear goal for what the students will accomplish and a detailed plan of what the teacher will say and do. The
presenting teacher should practice the plan at home before presenting. Note that the presenting teacher can NOT just say what she
will do. Instead, she needs to actually teach the skills (with materials, by standing up, addressing behavior issues, etc).
Practice will be even more effective if teachers use feedback. Many people give feedback, however, few use it.
(Rules 23 and 25: Practice Using Feedback and Shorten the Feedback Loop) In the exercise above, after each teacher practices
teaching a 10-minute mini lesson, have those who role-played students give feedback. Usually when teachers receive feedback,
they dont have the chance to implement it immediately. However, for this exercise, immediately after receiving the feedback and
having a few minutes to reflect, have the teacher re-teach the 10-minute lesson incorporating some of the suggested feedback.

See the next page for ideas to help your leadership team or principals (if you are a district
supervisor) actually practice coaching/supervising !!!!!!
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For Leadership Team or Principals to actually practice coaching

I. Incorporating the Idea of Practice into Coaching/Supervising Teachers
Have your leaders come to a meeting with a list of the teachers they are supervising and the issues they are working to improve.
(Rule 5: Replace Your Purpose with an Objective) When we work with teachers, we may not realize it but we often have a more
general purpose in mind (e.g., to help them improve classroom management, to help them increase the rigor of their instruction,
etc.) To be more effective as coaches/supervisors, take a moment to think about the teachers you work with and try to replace the
purpose you are focusing on with a more concrete objective (see the basketball example on the previous page).
Find a video of a less-than-perfect teacher (from the Internet or your school) teaching a class and show it to your group of leaders.
(Rule 31: Normalize Error) If supervisors want their teachers to improve, those teachers need to feel comfortable sharing their
failures. You can help leaders create this type of environment by encouraging them to normalize errors because errors are a
necessary part of learning. Below is some sample language from the book they can use with teachers. After watching the video,
have each leader, one at a time, use the language below to share one comment he or she could make to help normalize error for
this teacher.
Im so glad you did that; its one of the most common mistakes that we make when trying X.
You did that for all of the right reasons; what you need to look out for is X.
You did just what I did when I first learned X.
(Rules 27 and 29: Limit Yourself and Describe the Solution) There may have been numerous things the teacher in the video did
wrong, but leaders will be more effective in improving instruction if they focus on one to two at a time. This time, go around the
group and have each leader state the one or two most pressing issues he or she would focus on in giving the teacher feedback.
Then, have the leaders work on describing the solution rather than describing the problem when giving a teacher feedback. Have
them fill out the chart below (note that you can use any problems you want on the left, these are just suggestions):
REPLACE: Describing the problem
Your classroom management is weak.
Your level of questioning remained at the low cognitive levels.
More than half of the students werent engaged.

WITH: Describing the solution

II. Practicing Coaching/Supervising Teachers

Now its time for supervisors and coaches to actually practice coaching a teacher who will be role-played by another leader. Either
show the teaching video from above, or find another video of a teacher teaching with some issues. Have your leadership team work in
groups of four. One person will act as the supervisor, one will role-play the teacher in the video, and the two others will observe and
take notes. The one who role-plays the teacher should truly act like a teacher with gaps in knowledge, some defensiveness, etc.
(Rules 26, 27 and 29: Use the Power of Positive, Limit Yourself, and Describe the Solution) When practicing
coaching/supervising in the role-play exercise, make sure the leader follows the two suggestions above focus on only one to two
areas of concern and outline possible solutions to the teaching problems rather than just describe the problems. However, also
make sure the leader builds from what is positive about the teachers performance, but in a way that captures what the teacher
specifically did right rather than relying on vague compliments such as, Good job!
Unfortunately, while many people give feedback, few use it. Take the opportunity to have your leaders immediately incorporate
feedback to improve their practice.
(Rules 23 and 25: Practice Using Feedback and Shorten the Feedback Loop) After the first role-play, have the leader who roleplayed the teacher and the two observers give immediate feedback. Then have the same person act as the supervisor and role-play
again right away so the supervisor can incorporate the feedback immediately into his or her practice.

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