Leaders tell us we should be reading throughout our career. They ask about our reading habits in passing or supplement their emphasis with 10 pound hand-me-down tomes. I often wondered how my leaders found the time to read. The exultation of legends such as Secretary of Defense James Mattis, renowned for his monkish ways and extensive library, further promulgate the mysticism of the reading leader. In contrast, I have purchased and started many books. They now sit in my “library” as artifacts of overly ambitious goals in a time and energy deaf environment.

I eventually found a way to overcome this challenge. This discussion highlights how I understood the requirement, identified gaps to find a solution, and discovered ways to achieve that solution.

The Requirement:

The Army’s 2010 “Profession of Arms” White Paper identifies continuous learning as a defining attribute of professionals. Current leader development doctrine (Field Manual 6-22) connects continuous learning and self-development through a requirement for “self-enhanced learning” and its critical concept, “focused reading and analysis.” The purpose of reading is to understand, recall and use information by “deep processing,” which makes leaders better critical thinkers and creative problem solvers.

The Gap:

The gap becomes evident when we examine personal actions in the context of our professional obligation, leader emphasis and organization’s cultural ethic.

Most understand the requirement, and many leaders promote the requirement openly. The problem stems from the organization’s cultural ethic: dissonance between the espoused value of self-enhanced learning and consideration (time, workload) given its attainment.  Regardless of your culture or leaders, self-development and self-enhanced learning are personal responsibilities. Therefore, how do we achieve the intent of self-enhanced learning, given (or despite) our current environments, to develop critical and creative thinking skills necessary to be effective leaders?

The Solution:

Field Manual 6-22 also addresses considerations such as personal motivation and workload/time as internal and external obstacles to self-development. While its recommendations are helpful, my solution could be summarized in one word: access. Access means that it has to be easy to start and present few barriers to entry.I have to be able to make and continuously interact with my goals. The tools I use for learning must be affordable and meet my staff-officer energy needs.

Easy-Start Learning:

For an easy start, I use audiobooks, e-books, and free online classes accessed through tools such as cell phones, tablets, and computers, which are lightweight and portable. I carry 100 books or 20 audiobooks on my phone that I can instantly access anytime I take a break or need a distraction.

Goal Setting:

I set goals using a free reading focused application called Goodreads, an interactive forum capable of establishing a social network focused on reading. Goodreads can help you set reading goals and conduct reading competitions with other members of your network (or create one for your staff section). You can create “bookshelves” to track books you want to read, what you are reading, and what you have already read. Goodreads is available on each of the easy-start tools listed above.

Physical Cost:

Reading a paper book at the end of the day was challenging because my eyes got tired. I overcame this challenge using e-reader applications which provide the capability of adjusting font size, backlight color, and font color. I alter these elements as I read, and the novelty usually extended my reading time.

I often listen to audiobooks while driving or exercising. I mostly listen to history books because I found it challenging to retain complex writing. The story-like format of most history books seems to be less impacted by the untraditional media. Most audio-book applications allow you to speed up the tempo of the reading which allows you to complete books more quickly than if you were reading.

Financial Cost:

There are numerous ways to attain audiobooks, e-books and online courses for free. Below is a list of these tools with links:

• Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) Library (http://myarmyonesource.com/EducationCareersandLibraries/Libraries/UCdefault.aspx): Access to audiobooks and e-books.
• Your installations on-post library (http://mylibraryus.armybiznet.com/): Access to audiobooks and e-books.
• RBdigital phone and tablet application: This application synchronizes your devices with the MWR libraries which allows you to access media easily. First, one must establish an account with the MWR library through their online portal, or at your installation library.
• Your public library: go to www.overdrive.com to see if your local public library allows you to check out digital media.
• Center for the Advancement of Leader Development and Organizational Learning (https://www.usma.edu/caldol/SitePages/Home.aspx): Includes information on junior officer leadership development forums, free podcasts and access to online blog forums.
• The Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/): Access to free classes from renowned instructors on topics such as math, science and engineer, computing, arts and humanities, economics and finance, and test preparation.
• Amazon’s Kindle and Audible platforms: Resources from these platforms are not free but they do give you access to high-demand books that are “checked out” in the MWR libraries, and they still cost less than their paper counterpart.

CPT Joshua Urness is currently a student completing Intermediate Level Education. He is an Air Defense Artillery Officer who has served on Battalion and Division Staffs. He recently completed duties as a Fellow in the Chief of Staff of the Army’s Strategic Studies Group and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.