I am a lifelong learner. I get joy from reading, learning new things, and changing the way I view the world. I get book-mentionitis when I’m reading a really great book.
Many of the awesome people I work with don’t have time to read an entire book, so they don’t even start.
Years ago, I found a way to bring this joy to my team at work without making them feel stressed about adding another big, hairy to-do to their list: The Book Club for Busy People.
Here’s how it works for participants: Sign up for 1 book that looks interesting to you. Read 1 assigned chapter from the book. Make some notes on 1 slide. Attend 1 meeting. Eat 1 (or more) donut(s).
Total time investment for participants: ~3 hours.
It would take the average reader at least 8 hours to read a whole book! Participants get the benefit of the whole book while saving time, building stronger relationships, and eating donuts!
It takes a little more time to curate this process, but not much! I’d say it’s about 2 extra hours each month to secure space, distribute books, jockey emails with chapter assignments, and encourage participation.
Want to replicate this awesomesauce in your organization? Here's the recipe! Tweak it to suit your tastes, of course.
Ingredients:
- 10 Interesting Books
- 10-50 Associates that Want to Develop!
- 1 Simple PowerPoint Slide Template
- 1 Hour to read 1 Chapter & make 1 slide
- 2 Hours to Discuss the Book
- Donuts
Steps:
- Select 10 interesting books that are aligned with your business objectives. Trying to create a learning culture? Aiming to transform your leadership styles? Pressing your team to help develop others? There’s a book for that! It’s best to have a few bibliophiles that want to curate your book club selections. The internet, the local public library, and your professional network are great places to solicit ideas! A few tips:
- Concepts, not facts: Learning facts is important, but not a good approach for this book club. You want a book that will teach you about a concept, principle, or structure so that you can apply information to your role.
- No Politics: It’s great to have healthy dialog, but don’t choose the autobiography of your favorite senator. She might not be everyone’s favorite.
- Audiobooks are great: Many professionals struggle to find time to read, but have time in the car or during their morning jog. Choose books that have an audio option via the public library (love the Libby App!) or Audible. It’s often about the same price as the paper version!
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Plan one book per month from January through October. November and December are too busy for a productive book club, so don’t burn cycles asking for participation. They can be a great month for bibliophiles to do some pre-reads for next year! When you can, align books to activities you know you have going on. Whitepapers due in February? Read a book on persuasion in January. Mid-Year appraisals? Read a book about giving great feedback in May. Plan the full year at once so people can make sure they’re aware of the full plan when they are signing up.
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Whip up a simple slide template with three text boxes:
- If you learn nothing else from this chapter, learn this...
- Actions I plan to take after reading...
- Discussion topics...
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Communicate! Share a tag line: The Book Club for Busy People: Just one book. Just one chapter. Just one slide. Just one meeting. Make it simple to sign up – and require very little commitment. Allow people to sign up for as many or as few books as they want. Once people sign up, either supply a book or let them expense a copy. Consider limiting the number of people based on the number of chapters in the book to make sure the club stays engaged.
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Assign each person one chapter; ask them to add a slide to a shared location related to their chapter.
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Buy donuts.
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Meet in a place with a screen or print the completed slides. Eat donuts. Get smarter. Be popular.
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Repeat next month!