Hi Reader,

Friday is when I share a few leadership ideas, interesting discoveries and questions that caught my attention during the week.

In case you missed the earlier Newsletters this week, you can find them here:

• This week we talked about After Action Reviews and I kicked it off by sharing a story about Bologna, Ketchup and an Autopsy Table in Who Screwed This Up.
• On Wednesday, I laid the core structure of how to conduct After Action Reviews in The 4 Questions Essential to Promoting Continuous Improvement.

Wednesday marked the 106th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.

Reportedly, it passed with the last state required to approve the amendment – Tennessee – passing it by ONLY ONE VOTE – because one 24-year-old representative changed his vote after receiving a note from his mother that read in part:

He changed his mind on the 3rd vote.

In one of the most celebrated searches for extraterrestrial life, almost 50 years ago today, The Ohio State University’s Big Ear Radio Telescope detected a powerful 72-second transmission that appears on just one of the telescope’s 50 channels.

Despite repeated attempts to detect the signal by pointing radio telescopes at the same area of the sky, the “Wow!” signal has never been observed again.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay area, you should know that this week in 1964, the Beatles kicked off their first U.S. tour at the Cow Palace.

Kiss Your Mom!

We love our Moms so this story is heart-warming and a unique rite of passage for High School freshmen.

You can watch the brief video here.

We also know, don't we, that women and men are wired differently. This humorous offering cracked me up – with a dose of reality front and center. Watch Men's vs. Women's Brains here.

Let me know if there is any doubt about the accuracy of this story.

This from the back of a T-shirt.

Football season is here with preseason games stacking up each week.

When I watched the San Francisco 49ers line up for their first preseason game vs. the Tennessee Titans, I noticed that only one player was wearing the Guardian Cap, the soft-shell padded covers worn over traditional hard-shell football helmets to absorb impact forces and reduce the risk of head injuries.

I did a little research to discover that LESS THAN 1.5% of NFL players choose to wear them.

After mandating the caps in training camp (and during in-season contact practices), the NFL reported a substantial drop of around 50% in concussions among heavily hit position groups.

But, wearing the Guardian Caps is completely voluntary during games, and most athletes have concluded that they not only alter the traditional look of the uniform, but look "goofy" compared to the sleek standard helmet.

I trust that the NFL and team owners are serious about injury protection, but choosing NOT to wear Guardian Caps during games because they look “goofy” seems like a pretty “goofy” decision — particularly when the consequence of one hard hit could last a lifetime.