Carrie Gathers

Beating Stress

Whether a team member is working hybrid, on-site, or from home, building team cohesion is essential for success in the workplace. Finding ways to create a shared experience can be challenging yet rewarding. Hosting a company book club can be a powerful way to build a sense of connection and promote learning and development simultaneously.A Book Club for Learning and DevelopmentA book club can be a powerful L&D tool, creating team growth by building skills, communication styles, and work processes that align with organizational goals—whether it’s adopting Scrum for faster, high-quality work, or learning StoryBrand to clarify brand messaging. This shared learning creates smooth processes for teams to build knowledge they can apply directly to their roles.Employee feedback surveys are an invaluable and sometimes underused tool to guide book club choices and address pain points in the company. If employees report dissatisfaction with meetings, a book on productive gatherings could be valuable. Similarly, a book on emotional intelligence can improve both workplace relationships and client interactions. Tailoring book selections to team needs and goals makes the book club initiative more relevant and effective.Practical Steps for Starting a Book Club in Your OrganizationEach workplace is unique, but consider a few of these vetted steps that can lead to starting a successful book club. You’ll want to tailor them to your employee and cultural needs: Survey employee interests and needs: Before selecting a book, consider conducting a short survey to gauge employees’ interests. This helps to align the book club's content with the topics employees care about most and maximizes engagement.Choose accessible formats: Offering the book in multiple formats—audio, e-book, and print—can ensure it’s accessible to a broader range of employees. A platform and app like Libby is your go-to for multi-format reading.Set a manageable schedule: To ensure the book club doesn’t feel burdensome, set a reading schedule that’s manageable for everyone and is something that special that everyone looks forward to.Create discussion questions: To encourage participation, consider preparing discussion questions that prompt reflection and open dialogue. Cut through information silos across departments: Consider opening the book club to employees across departments. This not only broadens perspectives during discussions but can also break down silos and cross-departmental understanding.Book Clubs as Connection Points in a Flexible, Remote WorldIn a time when remote and hybrid work can make employees feel isolated from their coworkers, a book club offers a simple yet effective way to reconnect. For employees who may not work together daily, it provides a structured opportunity to interact and build rapport. Imagine that employees are reading a follow-up book on their DISC assessment types. In the discussion afterwards, one participant states that their communication style is more direct than another’s preferred way of emailing or speaking. Then others realize the challenge communicating wasn’t what they were saying, but how they might have said it. These interactions can make employees feel more engaged and less isolated, creating a sense of belonging and camaraderie that carries over to other aspects of their work.Building a Stronger, More Cohesive TeamWhether it’s developing new skills, enhancing communication, or simply connecting on a human level, a company book club has the potential to strengthen teams and create a more cohesive work environment. Encourage employees to get involved in book clubs to foster their professional growth, deepen connections with one another, and inspire them to think outside of the box. 

How a Company Book Club Can Enhance Learning, Performance, and Teamwork

Procrastination is probably on most managers’ “Seven Deadly Sins” lists. But don’t be too quick to assign the moniker of “procrastinator.” According to personality type theory, as described by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) instrument, certain work style and cognitive preferences, which look an awful lot like procrastination on the surface, indicate anything but laziness.The MBTI instrument categorizes personality type along four categories, including Judging/Perceiving, which describes how people make decisions. Those with preferences for Judging (J)—whose work style dominates the corporate world currently—tend to make decisions quickly, and work more efficiently and are more energized at the beginning of a project. Conversely, those who prefer Perceiving (P) tend to make decisions later, and work more efficiently and are more energized toward the end of a project. It’s easy to see how an outsider, who can’t see what’s going on “under the hood,” might easily dismiss this tendency as procrastination, which usually entails delaying something because you simply don’t want to deal with it. However, for someone with a preference for Perceiving, quite the opposite is occurring. Instead, these workers are likely taking more time to gather all the information possible in order to make the most-informed decision. While those preferring J feel unsettled waiting to commit to a course of action and like to do it early on, those preferring P feel unsettled if they close off options before they’ve fully vetted them. Both approaches are valid and offer unique benefits. But it doesn’t take much vision to understand why—in a business climate riddled with the consequences of rushed decisions—the P approach might provide balance to an “I need it yesterday” culture. Yet, this particular cognitive and behavioral orientation, while common in the population at large, is marginalized in business, education, and society—often from childhood. **You’re a Slacker, and So Was Your Old Man!(No McFly Will Amount to Anything!)** From early in life, those with a preference for P receive messages that negate the value of their natural approach—and praise when they make more immediate decisions. This carries on into college, where you’re expected to choose a major before you even crack open a textbook (never mind that many of tomorrow’s most critical jobs probably don’t even exist yet). In fact, you could say that P preferences are programmed to self-identify as procrastinators and, as a result, learn to fake the J approach to school and work. How many times have you heard someone joke about the fact that they procrastinate, but can’t help it because they work better at the last minute? If that person is successful, chances are low that they truly procrastinate. More likely, they prefer P but have stereotyped themselves, because of a negative perception of what a preference for Perceiving really entails. In organizations, we don’t like when people delay making decisions. It’s unnerving because the merits of this work style are not understood in our J-biased corporate work culture—and we can’t necessarily discern what’s going on inside a person’s head. We can’t see that they’re actually gathering facts and weighing options; we don’t know that this process is so important to them that they’re willing to take all of the time that they possibly can before committing to a course of action. Efficiency Kicks in at the Project’s End As the deadline approaches, however, P preferences will quickly commit to a course of action and become efficiency machines, operating just as efficiently as those that prefer J tend to at the beginning of a project. This isn’t necessarily because they perform any better under pressure than anyone else, but rather that they work more effectively if they’ve had time to assemble the puzzle pieces in their head. On the other hand, if they’re required to operate in a Judging-oriented manner, focusing on the production end at the beginning of a project, they tend to work less efficiently. To put it in laymen’s terms, they may “doddle” a bit. This has nothing to do with their work ethic—they simply haven’t had sufficient time to formulate what they want to produce. And they’ll often change courses midstream, because along the way they’ve discovered a better approach. The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow Admittedly, for someone with a Judging-oriented outlook, the idea of allowing someone who prefers P to follow their natural work style within a modern business setting probably sounds like following a rainbow to its end in search of a pot of gold. However, in this case, there is a substantial pot of gold in terms of value to the organization. First, this approach provides a critical counter-balance to the J-driven propensity to make decisions and act on them quickly. To be sure, the Judging-oriented approach offers tremendous value, particularly in projects that require milestones. But sometimes decisions are made too soon—and organizations are locked into a course of action that turns out to be less desirable than one that materializes later. If both Judging and Perceiving perspectives are respected, however, teams can achieve ongoing, yet tempered momentum. Second, understand that those that prefer P really aren’t at their best when they have to conform to J-driven processes. If they’re allowed to operate within their natural work style, they produce higher quality work. To put it simply, you’re getting more value out of them by giving them the flexibility to do things their own way, and positioning them for greater career success by allowing them to make best use of their talents. Finding Common Ground We’ve established that P frequently conforms to a J world. But should it be the other way around? The reality is that it’s probably unrealistic—and perhaps equally unbeneficial—for either side to completely flex its behavior to the expectations of the other side. Those preferring Perceiving have to understand what things look like to a manager or co-worker with a J preference, and provide assurances that things are indeed progressing toward a desirable outcome. This may involve agreeing on certain markers that indicate progress. A Word to the Wise… If you prefer P, understand that when your J-preferring colleagues flex their own work preferences to your style, you’ve got to deliver the goods. If you don’t, you may not get another chance to prove the value of your approach. The good news: As you consistently deliver quality results, your J colleagues will become increasingly supportive of your work style.