My Thirst for Knowledge

I have always enjoyed learning and especially enjoyed learning new things.  It is my belief that life is a continuous learning process and we should try to expose ourselves to new experiences and situations.  It is my quest to learn that brings me to this blog today and also finds me surrounded in a room with lots of books.

My grandmother was an avid reader.  I remember many times in my youth going to the library with my grandmother (my Nana) to pick up books.  I never paid to much to what she read, but I believe Nana was a big Louis Lamour fan.  In my early reading days, I enjoyed the Encyclopedia Brown series, but today non fiction seems to be my strongest interest.  Quickly scanning my stacks of books, I count less than five fiction books in what must be more than fifty or more books.

Right now the book at my side is Managing with Aloha (MWA).  I just read the chapter 'Ike loa which is the value of learning.  Once again I find the words of Rosa Say resonate with my experiences and beliefs. Great leaders are also lifelong students, but they also must concentrate on the growth of their employees.  For me another big takeaway from this chapter is the idea of "The Daily Five Minutes".

In practice the Daily Five Minutes is a simple task, spend five minutes of impromptu time with an employee once a day.  Sadly, in my company this is something I rarely see done.  In my role as a individual contributor I rarely saw my manager and often wondered what was keeping him so busy.  I have been doing something similar to the Daily Five Minutes in an ad hoc manner, but now I intend to lead by example and make the Daily Five Minutes part of my daily routine.  I truly believe that this small investment in time will pay huge rewards in the future.  I'm excited to get to work tomorrow and make this happen.

As far as learning for me I will continue to keep MWA and GTD by my side.  Most of the books in my stacks need to be read so I have to find a way to absorb all the knowledge.  I am excited for the week for there is much to learn but now it is time to get some rest.

Aloha,
Chris