Why Start a Book Club at the Office? Sparkling's Nerd Club
We started a book club at Sparkling. Here's why it turned out to be a great idea.
I’ve always had a deep passion for reading. As a little girl, I used to sleep surrounded by my favourite picture books. As I grew up, that love never faded. I learned German to read Goethe in the original language, and Italian to read Italo Calvino’s Si par une nuit d’hiver un voyageur. Once I had kids, I surrounded my two daughters with books, and my strategy worked so well that I often have to ask them to stop reading. Unfortunately, we don’t yet share the same literary tastes, so recruiting them into a book club with me wasn’t really an option.
No matter — I have a company and employees! So they became the recruits for my very first corporate book club.
Why start a book club at the office?
- Build team spirit
Who wouldn’t want to be part of a book club? It’s the perfect excuse to carve out time in your schedule to read, and then talk about the book afterward. Above all, it forces us to set aside a regular time slot to get together as a team and talk about something other than a client project. There’s no judgment — we just have fun and share our thoughts on what we read. It also lets us discover other sides of our coworkers and hear them talk about topics we might not otherwise bring up.
- Offer ongoing training through playful learning
Since the book club exists within a work environment, I pick readings that are relevant to what we practice every day. It leads us to revisit certain tools and knowledge, get up to speed, or simply learn about other approaches. We ask ourselves how we could bring these ideas into our work, or sometimes the reading simply ends up accompanying us through a project. We always name what interested, surprised, or even disappointed us the most.
- Step outside your comfort zone
I always try to find reads the team wouldn’t have picked up otherwise, or ones that let us see things differently. It’s stimulating, and in my opinion it’s the best way to open up to new ideas and become more creative over time. Hearing someone else’s take on a book can also shake up our own perspective and broaden our thinking. I love hearing what other people think of a book!
How to set up a book club with your team
- A shared reading: how to choose the books
I try to pick two or three books ahead of time to give myself some flexibility and decide what order to place them in. Depending on the issues or challenges we’re facing at work, I choose a reading connected to those themes to amplify the potential learning from it.
- Plan it well
Once the book is chosen, I set the time slot and the time allotted for discussion (between 45 minutes and 1 hour per session). I split the book into reading sections (a part or a few chapters) and always give the team two to three weeks to read them. A few days before the club meets, I send out the questions or themes we’ll cover during the discussion so everyone can prepare properly.
- Lead the discussion well
Once the session starts, I make sure to keep track of the time allotted per question and that everyone gets a chance to speak. Sometimes I choose a new discussion leader to vary how we approach the conversation. It also gets employees involved in a different kind of project!
- Have fun
This is the most important part! It shouldn’t feel heavy, and no one should be dragging their feet. The whole point of this activity is to look forward to getting together and talking about what we read!
Sparkling’s Nerd Club reading list
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Your Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller. Influence et manipulation by Robert Cialdini. Happy reading! — You might also like: Devenir entrepreneure: 10 moments clés de ma première année. La procrastination: la comprendre pour mieux la vaincre. Notre top 5 des trucs pour un télétravail efficace (ou presque).
