The difference between a novice and an expert

Comment

Comment by Stephanie Voss on October 14, 2011 at 4:01pm

By coincidence (?) I just found this musing on the benefits of criticism over praise on the blog of an author friend. (Spoiler -- criticism is more valuable)   http://ericstonebooks.blogspot.com/  

And just as relevant, but more unusual than a writer seeking feedback is this surgeon, who relates his story of actually seeking feedback as an expert in his field. It's rather breathtaking to realize that, once established, most professionals rarely get the benefit of a trained observer..... 

 

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande

 

Enjoy!

Comment by Brian David Phillips on October 14, 2011 at 1:19am

Jackie's comment about her first client failure being a very good experience is resonant with Dave Elman's statement in his book that he wanted his students to fail early as the ones who had early successes without failures tended not to learn how to adapt to difficult clients or situations.

This isn't the same as positive versus negative feedback or criticism, as the same circumstance can be evaluated either way (here's what you did right versus here's what you need to improve).

I like the reframe James provided in regard to his composition students.  One of my professors at university impressed me greatly with her twist that her students should look forward to exams as they were opportunities to demonstrate how much they had learned . . . not that many of her students then or mine today actually had/have an "oh yeah!" response to an announcement of a test. :-)

- Brian

Comment by Celeste Hackett, CH on October 13, 2011 at 10:52am

Interesting idea Scott.  My clients work with me on average for about 4-6 sessions.  When they come back in after each session I ask, "How well are you doing?".  They will tell me the progress and where they fell down.  For a habit, such as weight loss, they may say they ate less food over all, but that night time eating is still a problem.  This progress report let's me know what I need to do next.  So, the postiive feedback they give means what work effectively stuck and is actively working, and the negative feedback (if you want to call it that) is what is left to do.  I am alwasy interested, most, in what's left to do, cuz once I am done, well, another satisfied customer!  Cha-Ching!  

So I guess I can see what you are saying.  I want to know what I need to do next ,and hearing what ISN'T helps me to know that.   I always tell them, "We are going to do something different each time you come  in.  Your world is your testing ground.  Make note of how well you are doing between sessions, and then ylet me know when you come back in.  Based on your feedback I 'll know what to do next.  This will be a process.  You didn't get this way overnight, so we need to take the time it takes to fix it, and to monitor how well you are doing before we release you entirely from our work together."

Comment by John Cleesattel on October 13, 2011 at 5:41am

I have a different yardstick for determining an expert. It is results based.

A novice has to guess what to do and is unsure of the result.

An expert knows what to do, how to do it, why it needs to be done, and what the result will be.

With this yardstick, length of time doing it is not really a factor. My trainer who had been doing hypnosis for over 20 years was teaching that trance began with three words.."close your eyes".

 

John

 

John

Comment by James Hazlerig - HypnosisAustin on October 13, 2011 at 5:36am

Back when I taught college freshman composition, before handing back the first round of essays, I would demonstrate for my class the difference between how a high-school student looks at a graded essay and how a college student looks at a graded essay.

 

A high school student somewhat fearfully says, "Oh, boy. Lots of red on that first page, not good." Then the high school student quickly looks away while flipping to the last page, then glances at the grade just long enough to see it. "A C-minus! Damn! Why am I so bad at this? That teacher's an asshole! I've GOT to do better next time!" And then the high-schooler never looks at it again.

 

A college student, as I would explain, somewhat fearfully says, "Oh, boy. Lots of red on that first page, not good." Then the college student quickly looks away while flipping to the last page, then glances at the grade just long enough to see it. "A C-minus! Damn!" Next the college student says, "All right, I paid a lot of money to be here to learn. Let's see what I can learn from all this red," before diving in, looking at the actual comments, and talking to the prof about how to do better.

 

Of course, I know that most kids in college are still high-school students, but part of my job as their instructor was to teach them how to succeed in college.

 

To borrow terminology from NLP, another way of putting it is that novices fear failure. Experts value feedback. 

 

Of course, it's not always that simple. Personality figures into it. As someone who fought self-doubt for years, I suspect I'll always enjoy hearing that I've done a good job. However, I had to work even to get to that point. Many a novice is so self-critical that they cannot hear praise. Early in my performing career, when someone complimented me, I would respond with my honest opinion that I could have done better. A mentor of mine trained me to respond, "Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it." That was some of the best advice I ever received.

 

Likewise, I was trained to provide criticism in what I call "a feedback sandwich," that follows a structure like this: "I really like the way you did ________. One thing that would make you even better is _____________. Overall, you're doing wonderfully (or showing promise or starting in the right direction)." I have to remind myself to use that structure for self-assessment as well.

 

Unfortunately, for many people, it's a binary matter--all positive or all negative. Because we hypnotists are all taught to focus on the positive, it's like we're afraid of the dark.

 

Last month when I asked a mentor for business advice because I was questioning some choices I'd made, I prefaced it by saying, "Look, I don't need a pep talk right now. I need blunt, Sandland-style, cut-though-the-bullshit advice."

 

:-)

Comment by docregal.com on October 13, 2011 at 5:30am

Hey there, Scott. Thanks for chiming in. I was wondering how you interpreted this generic posting.

Criticism, from my awareness, can be well received by one who was blessed by a critical upbringing. Maturity (with respect to receptivity) is nonessential in that circumstance, since childhood programming already took its toll. Agreeability of the novice therefore, although it differs from an expert's discernment, is not necessarily reliant upon ones acceptance, rather it could just be based upon familiarity which may simply be comforting in its own way.

Key is ones openness to learn. I can add readiness, willingness, capability and eagerness to that list as well. Just because the coaches groaned and moaned to specific individuals did not guarantee that a successful impact upon those players was even occurring, indeed other factors aforementioned necessarily come to play and because that preferential coaching display most definitely reached everyone else in earshot, it was having a "reversed" psychological effect as well, unless the benched players were living in a vacuum. So this safety net, I think we are talking about, is just an illusion for each individual. Regardless of anyones sportsmanlike capabilities, each already has a pre-hardwired psychodynamic mindset that predetermines what happens.

Comment by Fable Goodman on October 12, 2011 at 11:30pm

Definition of 'Expert'...

 

And 'ex' is a 'has been'...

 

A sprurt is just a 'drip under pressure'.

 

Love hugs,, and just a smidgen of ''tongue in cheek'

 

Lawrie

Comment by Scott Sandland on October 12, 2011 at 9:21pm

Doc, I'm thinking of it totally differently. Think Dennis may be correct that this is more about maturity than expertise, but it's still an interesting thesis.

Let's use an example of this site instead of a client.

A novice gets excited when everyone agrees with their post. A veteran can see conflicting viewpoints and does not feel threatened, but instead can open mindedly reflect on the possibilities they are presented with, without needing to accept any of them as better or worse.

Criticism allows a person to see where they can improve and what can challenge them. Growing up my coaches only yelled at the players they cared about and ignored the guys who were going to be on the bench. It was almost a compliment to get that feedback, because it meant he thought you could take it.

An expert is ready for the challenge while the novice still needs the safety net.

See that angle? That's how I took it.

Comment by docregal.com on October 12, 2011 at 9:07pm

And this can be said in another way. If ever a session is not running smoothly, then take a different tact. From my viewpoint, the client always follows the lead of the operator or the client is not "getting it". A well trained dancer will always be a great lead and can shine with his partner on the dance floor as long as his "girl" dutifully follows along. ;-)

Comment by docregal.com on October 12, 2011 at 8:58pm

This article is very poorly written, if what you say, Stephanie, is what the author meant to communicate. And if so, the question that still lingers in my mind is this: "Why ever 'focus' on 'failure', especially if one is an 'expert'?" One can learn plenty, IMO, without "purposely" self sabotaging. ;-)

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page