Expanding horizons: The transformative power of diversifying your reading list.

The past 12 months have been an incredibly busy period for me. As well as overseeing services in Wales I have overseen services in England, worked through the second-half of my level 7 senior leadership qualification with the CMI, moved house, and maintained my family responsibilities. Over the next couple of weeks I have both my final level 7 assessment and starting a new job to contend with. All of this has meant a few things have slipped. My attendance at the gym have dropped dramatically, something I wish to address in the next month, and I have found it difficult to keep up with my reading. The long drives up to the Midlands and back have meant I've been able to make the most of my Audible membership, but there is something very different about holding a book in your hands and reading from that. I feel I benefit from it in a different way than I do from listening to an audiobook or watching a YouTube video. Not to say one of those methods of learning is superior to any of the others, it's just a different experience. I've taken advantage of a bit of downtime between jobs to reflect on what I have read and learnt over the past year. There are a number of books I have read or listened too but am yet to write up for the website. These books include “Nudge”, “The Art of War”, “The First 90 days”, “Understanding Cognitive Biases”, “Good to Great”, “Be Useful”, “Radical Candor”, and several others. I have long been passionate about personal and professional development, and have a huge “to read” list scribbled down in one of the many notebooks I carry with me. Purchasing a new Kindle to replace my much neglected, very old iteration that still had a physical keyboard, has been fantastic in helping me keep up my reading habits. I carry it with me most places despite having the app on my phone. The device itself is much more comfortable to use compared to staring at a tiny phone screen. Now my “to read” list also consists of the many samples I've downloaded in anticipation of future purchases. What I have found across the dozens of books I've read and hundreds of hours spent listening to audible, is that I have been too narrow in my focus. The vast majority of the non fiction I have read has been purposely chosen to develop existing skills or to introduce me to new skills. For example, “Thinking Fast and Slow” gave me great insight into the way that I and others come to conclusions and make decisions. Shane Snow’s “Dream Teams” made me think in a whole new way about team building and diversity. Chris Voss and Tahl Raz’s “Never Split the Difference” helped me reflect on my negotiating skills and improve them beyond what they were previously. But despite the diversity of titles I have read and listened to, seeing my library when I turn my kindle on let me to realise one thing. Every single book I have read focuses on one key idea. A book on negotiating. Books on diversity. Books on listening, on communication, on finance, on language, on habits, on economics and so on. Every one of them valuable, every one of them insightful, and usually with actionable measures that I can apply to my job or home life. All of them introducing me to new ideas and new concepts. But not one on developing my own thinking.
As ever, I’m always keen to hear of new books and resources that can introduce me to new ideas or challenge my perceptions. Ebooks are preferred, but I’m open to Audible podcasts and YouTube channels, too. Drop me a comment here or on my LinkedIn and let me know!