Contributors to the February 2022 issue of TD magazine offer their book recommendations.

Anne M. Beninghof

Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It 

by Ian Leslie

Knowledge growth depends on curiosity and a drive to fill information gaps. This book provides the perfect blend of research and practical ideas to help readers build curiosity in themselves and others.

Heather Younger

Your Stories Don't Define You. How You Tell Them Will: Storytelling to Connect, Persuade, and Entertain

by Sarah Elkins

I love this book because it highlights why our stories are so important and how we are able to choose which stories we tell and which ones we believe. It validated for me the importance of storytelling in every setting.

Richard Fleming

Improving Performance Through Learning: A Practical Guide for Designing High Performance Learning Journeys

by Robert O. Brinkerhoff, Anne M. Apking, and Edward W. Boon

This book puts learning metrics into context with business outcomes that stakeholders demand; it lays out steps to building successful training that also has strong support for learning return on investment. The authors simply and elegantly demonstrate how to make training a live, dynamic continuum that will radically improve learners' time to proficiency.

Jack Harlow

Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan

This memoir/collection of essays captures several phrases we could all incorporate into our conversations at work or at home. A couple standouts for me were “Tell me more” and “No.” Sometimes people just want to be heard, and adopting a “Tell me more” mindset can get you out of the habit of interjecting your own advice when you should be listening. We’re all guilty of taking on more than we can handle or adapting ourselves to accommodate other people in our lives—often to our own detriment—so learning when and how to say no can protect our boundaries and drastically improve our happiness.

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker

Written before the COVID-19 pandemic and a seemingly forgotten world of in-person-first events, this book still holds crucial advice for improving our meetings. In fact, deciding why you’re really gathering (chapter 1) may be even more pivotal when virtual. We’ve all suffered from company online hangouts that attempt to build culture and engage us remotely but seem rudderless or, worse, a waste of time. Read this book and you may just get people looking forward to attending your virtual gathering or clamoring for you to lead another.