Today I learned:
1. Take-aways: I was reading the materials provided for an upcoming leadership training program I am participating in and one of the stats given was intriguing: Only 1% of people who read a business book will actually implement any of the ideas.
There was no source provided so I can’t back this up (and for this reason I am not citing where I read it), but it does seem like a reasonable guesstimate. It got me thinking. Am I part of the 99%…or the 1%?
It seems in this area I am not doing too bad, but I could be doing better. When I read I already do it pen in hand and I am forever circling, underlining and bending page corners to keep note of things that hit home for me. That said, I rarely look back to recalibrate on the lessons learned. Tonight I decided to change that with a new strategy.
Whenever I finish a book, if I think there are things I need to implement, I am going to schedule a 30 minute reflection in my calendar about a month away to revisit it. If I find that time helpful I will schedule another one a bit further down the road.
To experiment, I tried it tonight with Peter Legge’s The Power of a Dream which I finished in the fall of 2011. It turns out there were several lessons and anecdotes I have actually used, but the refresher reminded me of a few gems I had forgotten. A worthy exercise it seems. My assumption is that with a powerful book after 2-3 reviews I should be able to ingrain the key points permanently. Will it take more? Maybe, but this plan is a start, and it seems a useful experiment. Why not invest another couple hours or so in a book you feel strongly about? Otherwise it just gathers dust.
I am interested to know if anyone else does something similar – any comments?
2. Google Age Restrictions? Privacy Policy #Fail: Google products are integrated deeply into my life and the way things are going I assume they will be weaved into the lives of my kids too. That’s why I am quite concerned with a piece of their new privacy policy. I was reading up on the changes tonight and I found this link outlining a new age requirement of 13 years for a Google Account in Canada.
Presumably this was done to match the existing Google+ age-restriction policy, but I see a problem with it.
Gmail is email. It is not Google+, and not Facebook. It is social, but not a social network. Integrating all our accounts across platforms makes some sense, but not when it limits access to the most basic communication tool they have – email. That’s akin to telling me when I was growing up in the 1980’s that I wasn’t allowed to buy stamps.
This could actually create a problem for me – I already have accounts for my kids. In fact, they had them in the womb. They are not even close to 13, and while the kids don’t even know about them yet, my wife and I actually use them. We send them things like pictures and funny one liners as sort of e-diary which we hope they will one day enjoy reading.
Will we let the kids use the accounts prior to age 13? That was certainly the plan. From what I understand lots of local kids need email as early as grade 1 to manage homework and communicate with their teacher. I would hate to think this policy could sent my kids flocking to Hotmail, or god forbid, Yahoo.
two things i learned today 