Amateurs practice until they get it right; professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.
[Originating source unknown]
LOVE this!
Simple and straightforward, yet; ponderable…
Amateurs practice to learn how to do something. So they can do it correctly. So they can get it right.
An amateur’s practice is about expanding possibility. Building capability. So they can do that thing that they want to do.
But a professional’s practice is quite different!
Professionals practice so they can get it right …
… every. single. time.
They practice until they’re confident they can’t get it wrong.
For professionals, it’s not enough to know that they can do something. They practice so they can know they can always do it!
We might say that a professional’s practice is all about building exceptional capability; the capability to always perform, despite the myriad factors that can inhibit, or constrain.
To perform without exception.
* * * * *
Up to now, I’ve stayed within the framing of the quote. By that I mean I’ve explored the concept from the point of view of the individual. Amateurs, and professionals.
But my pondering leads me to expand the application.
Are there amateur organizations and professional organizations?
And when considering “practice” within an organizational context, some killer questions pop:
Are there amateur organizations that design, staff, train, and invest in developing the organization to enable meeting business goals … and professional organizations that design, staff, train, and invest in developing the organization to enable exceptional and sustained business performance?
Are there organizations that at one time were “professional”, actually committing to investing in developing capabilities that would lead to exceptional performance, but somewhere along the way began operating in a way we might now describe as amateurish, wanting to simply be able to meet current performance expectations?
Are there amateur organizations that invest just enough to get it right and professional organizations that invest to insure they can perform without exception?
For me?
Yes, yes, and yes.
For you?
johnponders 
Ahh, yes… Now THIS post is from the John I’ve always known! It certainly shook some of the rust loose from my thinking, thanks…
I’ve been thinking long and hard about this article since you’ve posted it.
In music, the mark of a professional is not to perform perfectly without exception (although that’s certainly the desired result). Instead, a true professional has virtuosic *recovery* – the ability to spring back and adjust in a way that is both effective and elegant. It’s the “I meant to do that!” super power, and it’s the top skill I’ve been working on achieving in my music studies. If you’re comfortable on stage, even when making a mistake, then your audience remains comfortable throughout the performance.
I teach voice to high school singers, and my high-achiever students get really stressed out when they mess up in a performance or in an audition. I have to remind them that all people make mistakes in live performance – even the pros! – because there is so much we can’t control in our environments, even after hours and hours of preparation. Instead of doing everything right (which may be an impossible feat), a professional has to learn how to find their way back onto the balance beam quickly and without fail – whether that means repeating a verse they’ve already sung, making up sounds that resemble French until they get back to a part they know, or homing in on a root pitch when lost in sight-singing.
How does this apply to organizations?
An organization can’t control everything in their environments, even when performing exceptionally and acting in accordance with their strategy and mission. If I’m using my analogy above, I have to ask: How quickly can the business adjust? How rapidly can the business identify a misstep, own it by communicating about it to their teams and/or stakeholders, and then get back on track? Is the goal of performing exceptionally stand in the way of actually getting things done? Do cumbersome processes, excessive meetings, etc. end up turning an organization into a “measure 14 times, never cut” sort of business?
I think performing exceptionally well is extremely important – I agree with you on that! – but I would take it one step further and say that it is equally important for the professional business to handle the inevitable mistakes with grace.
Pingback: Our 2013 Most Popular | johnponders