Reading books is one of the best and easiest ways to learn. For a few years, I have been encouraging my managers and the rest of our team to get into the habit of reading.
A few years ago, I urged a few teammates to read a business book and write a summary that we could then all discuss. While only one person read the selected book, I felt so proud to put the summary on our bulletin board. One of our architects came into the office and was so impressed with her effort.
It took a bit of trial and error, but we settled on a weekly rhythm, reading two or three chapters per week. Then we’d get together for 30 minutes each week to discuss what everyone learned. By keeping this weekly discussion session as a standing meeting, we’d usually finish a book in two to three months.
We’ve read all types of books, from The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts (public library), The Great Mental Models Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (public library), The Great Mental Models Volume 3: Systems and Mathematics (public library) to the Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness (public library). We like reading different types of books because we can diversify our thought processes and then compare them and the topics we are exploring.
I love our book meetings – we’ll of course talk about the content, but most importantly I seek to apply the knowledge to our own lives or even our company. Just this week, we were talking about the concept of choosing samples. Our finance manager suggested we send out surveys to a representative sample of our company instead of to the whole population to avoid survey burnout. She then suggested we investigate how we were sending our customer service surveys to make sure they were representative of the people.
I have found this exercise so valuable that we are going to expand the program to the rest of the company, but we want to do it sustainably so that everyone is reading and expanding their knowledge. Hopefully, along the way, we will create a few bookworms.
I find that to read continuously, it is essential to create a habit. Asking someone to read a book once will not be enough, and the groups can make all the difference when it comes to accountability. I can tell you because it happened to me. I had been putting off reading The Great Mental Models Volume 3: Systems and Mathematics (public library). When our management team started reading it, I decided to join in. And so, despite having a hectic schedule, I managed to read the entire book and discuss it with them, and now, I don’t miss a meeting.
