Did you know that book clubs can expand beyond leisurely get togethers with friends and family? Implementing an agency book club can be a great way to help improve employee relationships, spur creative ideas and reach professional development goals.
Outlined below are key benefits from having an agency book club and how you can start your very own today.
1. Bond and Connect with Coworkers
You spend a lot of time with you coworkers, so why not develop friendships along the way? Bonding with coworkers can often lead to increased happiness and engagement at your workplace, which is a win-win for everyone. Since friendships often derive from similar interests, collaborating with other employees who share a passion for reading and learning can be a great starting point.
An agency book club can provide your employees with the opportunity to get together and learn more about each other outside of the usual workday setting.
2. Fuel and Empower Creative Ideas Through Discussion
Book clubs are a great way to facilitate discussion and healthy debate. When coworkers collaborate and share ideas they can expose each other to new information or skills they may have overlooked otherwise.
With the right discussion questions that go beyond a simple “yes” or “no” answer, conversation will flow—fueling new, creative ideas. This can help empower success and innovation for the agency, clients and professionals.
3. Reach Professional Development Goals
If your agency encourages your professionals to set and achieve their own professional development goals, an agency book club can be a vital piece to the puzzle.
Reading books on topics such as marketing, management, leadership or client services can help your team brush up on their industry knowledge and guide them down the path to professional success.
How to Get Started
Getting started is easier than you may think, especially when you have the right team members! A few tips to begin implementing an agency book club, include:
- Take a poll to see who is interested. Although having a book club may seem like a great idea, you run the risk of not having enough people onboard. Before laying out all the nitty-gritty details, take an internal poll to see how many people would like to join.
- Select valuable book options. Encourage participants to submit their own book titles, and then have the group select or vote together. This allows the whole team to work together to make a decision on what interests them the most.
- Choose a regular meeting schedule. Decide on how often your club is going to meet in advance so members are properly prepared.
- Submit discussion questions prior to meetings. Encourage each member to submit 1-2 questions that can be vetted prior to the book club meeting.
- Offer incentives. Give your team some additional incentives (i.e. snacks, drinks or a cool meeting location) to make the meeting fun on top of being educational!
How would your agency benefit from starting an agency book club? Share with us in the comments below.
Image Source: Hans
