Consider what it takes to become a master in your career. Malcolm Gladwell said it takes 10,000 hour of intense experience. But that's only half the story! Explore the difference between become a subject matter technical expert and becoming an influential expert within an organization. Chart your own path towards mastery, and assess what’s left in your journey. The Mastery workshop uses a 4 phase framework: Content, Quantity, Context, and Quality.

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Mastery
(Your Place in the World)
 mona sabet

2. © 2014 mona sabet
2 Women in Technical Careers
June, 2011
The Anita Borg
Institute for
Women and
Technology

3. © 2014 mona sabet
Deconstructing Career Advancement
1, entry level - Apprenticeship
 works under supervision
 demonstrates competence as a part of larger project
2, mid-level - Individual Contributor
 responsible for defined projects, works independently, increased technical
competence and reputation, develops a network
3, senior level - Management, Contributing through Others
 increased technical impact
 acts as a manager, or leader for stages 1 and 2.
 represents the group/project within organization.
 broader business perspective
4, executive level - Setting strategic direction
 represents organization and vision to external and internal constituents.
 power and influence in the name of the organization.
 prepares future leaders
3
Content
Quantity
Context
Quality

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Quality
Context
Quantity
Content
The 4 phases
of Mastery

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5 ContentContent
Who are you
learning from?
- Who are the experts in your field?
- Who is more of an expert than you?
- What separates their technical
content from yours?
- How do you stay current?
- How are you taking learning into
your own hands

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6 Content
Draw the depth and currency of your content
Content
Depth
Currency
1. Which bubbles need to get larger and move to the right?
2. Who can you learn from (experts in the field)?
3. List 3 ways to stay more current in critical content areas?
Eng
Law
Org
Psych
Product Design

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Quantity
Content
Phase 2 -
Quantity

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8 Quantity
Quantity

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Quantity9 Quantity
10,000-Hour Rule
the key to success in any field is, to
a large extent, a matter of
practicing a specific task for a total
of around 10,000 hours
…
Does this rule make sense? Why?
knowledge skill ability

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The elite software developer is the programmer who spends all
day pounding code at work, and after leaving work she writes
open source software on her own time.
The elite football player is the guy who spends all day on the
practice field with his teammates, and after practice he goes
home to watch game films.
The elite physician listens to medical podcasts in the car during a
long commute.
The elites are obsessed with what they do.
Continuous ImprovementQuantity

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11 QuantityQuantity
Novice
(2,000 hours)
Apprentice
(4,000 hours)
Journeyman
(6,000 hours)
Adept
(8,000 hours)
Master
(10,000
hours)product
marketing
Being strategic about your career means
developing a plan to get from here to there

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12 So far…
1. You have knowledge (content)
• What do you still need to learn?
• From who will you learn it?
• How are you staying current in your areas of technical work?
2. You have skills & experience (quantity)
• Do you know what skills you need to get to the next promotion?
• Do you know how strong you are at those skills today?
• What is your plan for getting from here to there?

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Context
Quantity
Content
Phase 3
Context

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Context
Context aware
applications
adapt to what
they sense from
the physical
environment they
are in.
14 Context
What do I mean by context?
http://www.slideshare.net/swatibaiger/context-aware-computing-14084995
Core Competence

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I want you to be a
Context Aware
Application
ContextContext

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Five Ways to become Context-Aware
16 Context

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Five Ways to become Context-Aware
17 Context
1. Identify 2 fields/ areas you should learn more about
a) one related to your field of expertise but not in it
b) one related to your customer’s area
How will you go about learning more about them
2. Develop your network in these fields
How?
3. Rate your service & Understand customer pressures:
Write down specifically what who you will ask, what you will say, where
will you ask, and how you will follow up

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Five Ways to become Context-Aware
18 Context
4. Will you make one of your customer’s goals your own?
a) Which customer
b) Which goal
c) What metrics
Or, why not?
5. Do you know how your department’s priorities relate to the
tasks you plan on doing tomorrow?

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Quality
Context
Quantity
Content
Phase 4
Quality

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Quality
Quality20
Quality is not what you put in it. It’s what the
customer gets out of it. (Peter Drucker)
Quality
Building and sustaining relationships by assessing, anticipating,
and fulfilling stated and implied needs (Anon)
Embracing the pressures and responsibilities of your
customers as your own (Me!)

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Quality
Quality
strategic
thinking
The Art of Handling Complex Systems

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Quality
= Bridge Building
Build new
associations
 among different
groups
 among different
disciplines,
ideas, and
priorities

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