A Simple Solution for Organizing an Office Book Club
We know the quote,
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” - Harry S. Truman
The data is clear, there is a strong connection between those who lead and those who read. Reading can foster employee engagement, boost professional development, and increase team cohesion. It’s no wonder that many Talent Development professionals seek to build a book club within their very own organizations.
If you have ever tried creating your own office book club, you know that it’s not all that easy. Resources are stretched thin to begin with, and leaders may not approve of an additional “side project” such as a book club.
My advice is don’t give up. Fostering reading within your organization is a needed step along the path to a true learning culture. What you want to do is delegate as much of the work to those outside the Talent Development team, and this is for two reasons.
The first reason is that it puts the ownership into the hands of those outside of HR/OD/or L&D. It places the responsibility and accountability into the hands of other people in the company, including folks from marketing, from finance, and from legal. It no longer is a “HR/training thing”, it becomes part of the organization.
The second reason is that by sharing the responsibility with those outside of your training team, the likelihood of success for the book club increases. The very nature of reading for professional development becomes sticky, and there is more bye-in from leadership.
But even offloading the work onto others can be difficult, especially if the whole company is experiencing tremendous growth or change. The initial thought is to shelf the idea for now, and come back to it at a better time.
My advice is not to do that. There will be no better time. Reading leads to skill development, which leads to innovation, which can lead to an impact on the success of the business. Here we will want to delegate the work to a third party.
Bookclubz is an app and website that simplifies the task of creating an office book club. This could be a perfect solution for the busy Talent Development professional who is looking to increase employee engagement through reading. With polling, chat boards, synchronous and asynchronous meetings, the task of getting the club off the ground gets easier.
Whatever your decision, or whatever help you seek, do not give up on the idea of creating a reading culture for your company. It will pay off in the end.