Time Management
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Brain Rules
June 11, 2008
I spend an inordinate amount of time on airplanes and in airports, making it necessary for me to seek out any little joy that I can find in the world of business travel. Certainly, among the biggest joys I encounter are an ever increasing number of airport bookstores that offer substantive and useful reading material. A good book can help make nearly any delay a bit more palatable.
Over this past weekend, in one such bookstore, I picked up “Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School,” by John Medina. It’s one of the most useful books that I’ve read in some time and one that could easily benefit both Baby Boomer Bosses and their T-Ball Generation employees.
Medina’s book is comprehensive. It is also packaged in a way that I suspect is the future of the printed word, i.e., it is paired with an extensive website and a DVD. Medina writes that in order to learn, human beings need to have as many of their senses stimulated as possible, and he has impressively packaged a product that stimulates every one of our senses with the exception of taste.
A couple of Medina’s rules really stand out, including:
Rule No. 1: If you want to build brain power, hit the gym. Exercise stimulates thought, and in fact, Medina argues, when we move, we think better. Medina suggests conducting some work while walking on a treadmill. He further throws out one really provocative idea: “Board meetings might be conducted while people walked 2 miles per hour.”
Rule No. 4: It turns out human beings are easily bored, and once we are bored, we don’t pay attention. In his own classroom lectures, Medina writes, he breaks down each one hour presentation into 10 minute segments. According to Medina, at about the 10 minute mark, most people begin to tune out.
Rule No. 12: By our very nature, human beings are natural explorers. As infants and small children, most of us loved the joy of discovering new things and abilities. It is the very nature of too many educational systems that puts a damper on learning. Medina urges all of us to preserve our sense of curiosity.
As they consider how best to train and retain their newest hires, Baby Boomer Bosses will find Medina’s observations helpful. And as they learn how to become effective contributors, the T-Ball Generation may find these same observations to be tremendously useful.
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