From principle to practice

If Chapter 2 left you with a sense that practice matters more than explanation, then this chapter is about making that practical. Because when we talk about improving competence under pressure, the question that inevitably follows is a fair one:

Not glossy demonstrations. Not elaborate simulations for their own sake. Not people being put on the spot or caught out. Effective practice is quieter than that - more deliberate - and, in many ways, more modest.

Realism is not what most people think

When people hear the word realism in training, they often picture high-definition graphics, digital twins, or perfectly recreated environments. That kind of realism has its place - but it’s not what changes behaviour, and it’s a rare organisation that has the patience or budgets needed.

Effective practice recreates the conditions of work, not the scenery. Things like:

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  competing demands for attention
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  uncertainty about what matters most
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  incomplete information
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  subtle cues that something isn’t quite right
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  the sense that stopping has a cost

You can have all of that without photorealism. And you can miss all of it with the most expensive visuals in the world.

“Just enough” realism

There’s a useful principle here: practice only needs to be real enough to affect judgement.

The sweet spot is what I’d describe as just enough:

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  Enough pressure to narrow attention.
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  Enough ambiguity to make the decision feel uncomfortable.
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  Enough consequence to make the outcome stick.

The role of safe failure

One of the most powerful - and underused - elements of effective practice is safe failure. In the real world, mistakes can carry serious consequences. In training, they should carry insight.

We’re not trying to embarrass them. We’re not testing or marking them. We’re trying to expose the thinking that led there. This is how experience is built without harm.

It’s also why practice that never allows failure tends to produce fragile confidence. Everything looks straightforward - until it isn’t.

Decisions before procedures

Another common mistake is starting practice with procedures. Procedures matter. But people don’t experience work as a sequence of steps - they experience it as a series of decisions:

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  Do I continue?
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  Do I stop?
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  Do I escalate?
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  Do I guess?

Effective practice starts with those decisions, then works backwards to the procedure that supports them. When people understand why a step exists - because they’ve felt the consequence of skipping it - compliance becomes much more reliable.

Short, focused, repeatable

Good practice doesn’t need to be long. In fact, shorter, focused experiences tend to be more effective - particularly when they are revisited over time.

A single scenario, repeated with slight variation, can reveal far more about judgement than a long, one-off exercise. Each repetition shifts something:

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  confidence becomes more grounded
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  hazard recognition sharpens
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  hesitation reduces
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  assumptions are challenged

The quiet test

There’s a simple way to tell whether practice is effective. Afterwards, ask the person not:

But:

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  “What did you notice that you wouldn’t have noticed before?”
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  “Where did it feel harder than expected?”
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  “What would you do differently on the job?”

If they answer quickly and vaguely, the practice probably didn’t go deep enough. If they pause, think, and talk about specific moments, you’re building something real.

Why this matters

This kind of practice does something important: it shifts competence from remembering to recognising.

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  Recognising when a situation is changing.
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  Recognising when a familiar job isn’t routine anymore.
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  Recognising the moment where a better choice needs to be made.

In the next chapter, we’ll look at the other side of the equation: evidence. How organisations can know - with confidence - whether this kind of practice is actually strengthening competence, rather than just feeling reassuring.