A Strong Suggestion: A Substantive Learning Session, in 20 minutes, Every Week – (You could start with Team of Teams)

After being at this a while, I think I’ve got a strong suggestion.

Most popular on our synopsis site

First, some news:  we’ve had an unusually high interest in two of our recent synopses: Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal and Extreme Ownership by former Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. A bunch of purchases for each… I’m going to assume that people are finding these useful.

We provide our synopses on our companion site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com. Each synopsis come with our comprehensive handouts, plus the audio recordings of our presentations from our monthly First Friday Book Synopsis sessions.

Though a person can do whatever they want (skim the handouts; listen to the recordings while they drive or workout), I think I have a better suggestion. And, this would be useful whether you’ve read the book or not. (Yes, it’s always better if you read the book for yourself. But even if you have not done so, and may not do so, this would still be useful).

Now, here’s my strong suggestion. Carve out 20 minutes. (The synopsis recordings are around 17-19 minutes). Sit down in front of your iPhone or computer, ready to listen, with the handout printed out. Have a serious “Deep Work” session with the book synopsis. Once a week – 20 minutes, listening, handout and pen in hand, mind fully engaged.

At the end, you will have a pretty good sense of the transferable lessons from the book. You might even want to write this at the end of your “private” session – “here’s at least one thing I intend to do next __________________________.”

Imagine what you could gain after 6 weeks, 3 months, a year of such 20-minute sessions each week.  I think you would find these private learning sessions quite valuable.

And, here’s another idea. We have a top-level business coach who plays these recordings for leadership teams within companies he serves. He distributes the handouts, they listen together, and then he leads a “what do we do with this” discussion. It is a great content piece for a team meeting. Give it a try.

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We have many, many synopses to choose from – 24 a year for many years now, and 24 new ones coming in the next twelve months. Peruse our catalog. Think about what you need to work on. Choose one a week, and have your own learning session. (Note: you can buy a subscription, with full access to the archives plus the next 24 synopses — 2 every month). Check it out by clicking here to get to our 15minutebusinessbooks site.