Practice, the utterly mundane companion to performance, cries out for sustained reflection; practice is the force that can drive qualitatively different results; and, if we really want to be great, we must first obsess about practice. This book puts practice on the front burner of all who seek to instill talent and achievement in others. Practice, great practice, creates positive outliers, incredible world-changing reservoirs of talent, either as groups or as individuals. And yet in many professions we're reluctant to practice. In some cases we don't even think of practice as what we do. In sectors of society where performance matters, we know there must be practice. Roll the tape back on Lionel Messi, Yo-Yo Ma, or the highest rated heart surgeon and we know what to expect: hours of drills and scales and exercises and incisions in oranges or cadavers. Again.

And again. And then again. Who would be surprised to see that? Now consider an area where practice is almost unheard of: the workplace. For example, we rarely think to rehearse difficult conversations with employees we manage, even though they can be among the most important moments in an organization's life. Imagine this scenario: you are about to give a key piece of critical feedback to an otherwise talented and valuable team member. This is simply not a conversation you are likely to get right the first time. Ideally you would practice it with your boss--run through various ways of expressing your key points, say them aloud to listen for and anticipate potential misinterpretations, practice just the right tone, use some iterative practice to rehearse responses for different ways she might react. To do it right the practice for the meeting should take longer than the meeting itself.

But the outcome will be worth it. The principles in The Practice Gap can make us, and you, better in virtually every performance of your life. The Practice Gap contains a sequence of scrimmages, drills, and practices of all sorts: Ready, Set, Go. And we've added one more in the spirit of always aiming for better: Go Further. In the READY section you'll find out about new ways to think about practice, about how it can help in areas we usually don't associate with performance or practice. In SET we'll start discussing the design of successful practice, of building up gradually from easy to complex. In GO we'll dissect drills and scrimmages and show how practice can be applied across a wide range of realms, both personal and professional. And in GO FURTHER we'll provide specific activities to jumpstart your practice.