Skill is made up of two elements, technical knowledge and practiced performance. If the skill is to throw a ball, there is some technical knowledge you need to know about the ball. Does the ball have seams, round or oblong, fingers around the ball or inside the ball, underhand or overhand. You see, there’s some technical knowledge you need to know about the ball.

But if you really want to get good at throwing the ball, you also have to practice. When I interview a candidate, not only will I interview them for their technical knowledge, I will also interview them for their practice. What is your frequency of practice, depth of practice, duration of practice, accuracy of practice? Because if you don’t practice a skill, what happens to the skill?

And, so it also works with challenge. For a person to be happy in their job, they have to be challenged, at least for some material duration of time, to their highest level of competence. This may be as small as ten percent, maybe 40 percent, but some material duration of time. Without challenge, we get bored. Of course, we can complete the mundane portions of our tasks, but without challenge, we go home empty. We completed the checklist, but completed nothing of significance.

As we design roles for people to play, we have to adjust those roles so people play at their highest game, at least for a portion of each day. Because if we don’t practice a skill, the skill goes away.