Remote and hybrid team leaders are often frustrated when trying to find ways to build relationships and enhance communication. One of the best ways to do that involves something we often think of as a solitary activity – reading.
This may seem like an unpleasant concept. Few of us enjoyed writing book reports and automatically hated any book that was assigned. And it’s not like everyone enjoys reading. One of the more depressing statistics I’ve read lately said that in America, only 19% of men and 24% of women read a book for pleasure last year.
There are multiple ways to make reading work for you and your team. Ideas range from just letting people talk amongst themselves, to assigned reading, to full-fledged book clubs. Let’s look at some ideas, and then dos-and-don’ts for using books to help build your team, especially when people don’t share a location.
Ways Teams Can Use Books to Bond
Let the readers on your team share and have fun
Few things are so revealing as what people read for pleasure (those who do, admittedly.) Set up a special channel on Teams or Slack for folks to share what they read and what they did or didn’t like (and it’s fun to dish on what you hate.) This group can be open to people on your team or even those in other parts of the company as a way of cross-pollinating ideas and creating connections. Sci-fi readers or romance lovers can find each other and network, regardless of which division they’re in or where they work. The good news is this is simple to implement and a lot of fun for those who participate. The bad news is that since so few people read for pleasure, your participation numbers may be low.
Set up a regular business book club
If you’re reading this, you know there’s no shortage of reading material on a broad variety of business topics. A good way to address business issues your team or organization might face is to assign reading. Then, have online, often live, group discussions about the books. The rise of in-house LMS makes it easy for everyone in the organization to get the books for free. They can even be offered in both audio or e-Book formats to accommodate learner preferences. Formats can range from monthly to quarterly Zoom calls to discuss the books. Or break the book into chunks and have more frequent discussions.
Purchase a specific book for your team and assign reading
Sometimes, there are specific issues on the team or in the business that need to be addressed. Assigning a book to the whole team and arranging a discussion or series of discussions accomplishes a couple of objectives.
- You involve the people who might not normally read for pleasure. Everyone is expected to participate.
- Because you purchased the book, people recognize there is a value to the content that’s relevant to them. And that it’s important enough to invest in addressing the topic.
These discussions don’t have to be a big deal. Taking a few minutes to talk about the book or assigned chapters during the standard team meeting will often accomplish the same ends.
Setting the Expectations
One thing to consider is allowing people to read the book on company time. If you’re asking them to do a work-related project, they shouldn’t be out of pocket or give up their spare time, unless they want to. If the activity is important to their work, it should be part of their work assignments.
Book clubs and other reading activities are great for hybrid and remote teams. Most of the activity happens on the employee’s schedule and doesn’t take up a lot of time. Additionally, you learn a lot about your teammates and colleagues by discussing what resonated (or didn’t) in a book.
Right now, we’re reading The Communication Code: Unlock every relationship one conversation at a time by Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram. Of course, you could also do what dozens of organizations have done and read The Long-Distance Leader, The Long-Distance Teammate, or The Long-Distance Team.
If you’re looking for a way to start conversations, get teammates connected, and even have some fun, books are a good place to start.
0 comments