Rethinking Skill Mastery
- Tim Ahlman
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
How do people master a skill?
I once thought someone had to “put in 10,000 hours” to master a skill.
I once thought people primarily learn through reward reinforcement.
I once thought rote memorization and repetitive practice would produce the best results in skill improvement.
New research from the “Beyond Reward-Based Learning” study out of UC Berkeley reveals a slightly different reality. I learn something new everyday, and this may be something new for you.
Learning is not linear. Learning is complex and multifaceted. True skill acquisition happens through a combination of personal choice and other repetitive habits displayed subconsciously.
Minimal repetition is better. Research shows that reducing trial-to-trial repetition (e.g., mixing up tasks) leads to greater long-term skill improvement than repeating the same action. Why? It forces the brain to remain engaged and enhances neuroplasticity. The brain loves novelty, new tasks, and new learnings. This increases neuroplasticity.
This is a very powerful truth for mentoring others in ministry. Mix it up—give students a variety of experiences—and, wow, ministry is the perfect calling for skill variety. Generally ministry is about learning to communicate the Gospel to various group sizes and contexts—each of these contexts must be engaged with emotional intelligence. Ministry includes leadership—leadership of couples struggling, people in conflict, and teams striving to be empowered. The brain loves diversity of leadership experiences!
The research also discovered the “Plateau and Surge” Model for skill mastery. Learning doesn’t happen on a linear slope. Research published in npj Complexity (May 2025) suggests learning unfolds through a combination of fast, small-scale improvements (practice sessions) and slow, long-term, structural changes (mastery), with learning often characterized by plateaus followed by breakthroughs.
This is huge for mentoring others in ministry! Skills—such as preaching and teaching, if the learner has a natural gifting for communication—will grow faster over time through consistent feedback from a mentor.
4 Best Practices for Skill Mastery (2025-2026 Research Guidelines)
Random/Varied Practice: To learn faster, you should constantly switch between different components of a task. This creates higher cognitive load, resulting in stronger, more flexible, and better-encoded skills.
Mix up your ministry experiences!
Active “Cognitive Offloading” Prevention: Over-reliance on AI (like chatbots) causes a significant drop in independent skill mastery (roughly 17%). The best approach is “conceptual inquiry” (using AI to learn) rather than “AI delegation” (letting AI do the work), to avoid “cognitive debt.”
Nothing replaces your ministry of presence. AI can’t replace life-on-life ministry.
Focus on Foundational Skills: While specialized skills have a “half-life” that has dropped to less than two years, foundational abilities—such as critical thinking, complex problem-solving, and clear communication—allow for faster learning and long-term adaptability.
Discover the gifts of those you mentor in ministry. Then, fan into flame their foundational abilities.
Contextual Interference: Introducing difficulty (interference) into training—such as practicing a skill in different environments or in an unexpected order—forces the brain to develop a more robust, transferable skill set.
Ministry will inherently bring interference and struggle. Look at it as a blessing, not a curse. Struggle helps us rely on Christ all the more.
3 Conclusions
Identify your natural abilities and skills in ministry. Ask a mentor to help you.
Create diverse environments to use your ministry skills. The brain loves novelty when learning new things.
Create feedback loops with trusted mentors to increase your speed toward mastery.
Remember, stay humble. If you know a lot about a little, it shows you how little you know about a lot.
Thanks for growing our neuroplasticity with us at the ULC!