Why Your Company Should Use Book Clubs for Professional Development
Don’t take it just from us — our participant’s five star reviews speak for themselves
Professional development is no longer limited to one-time webinars — and its better for it.
Book clubs are an unlikely but effective way to explore diversity, equity and inclusion topics through transformative discussions that are difficult to replicate through presentations or webinars.
Carefully curated books can help humanize broad concepts, make issues relatable and broaden readers perspectives.
I've had the pleasure of collaborating with some of Canada's most progressive DEI leads, employee resource groups, HR leaders, and learning & development teams to support 5-30 participant cohorts from their organizations taking part from in our Beyond Our Own Knowledge (B.O.O.K.) Club.
Thoughout our six cohorts of B.O.O.K. Club 350+ men from companies like Clio, Best Buy, RBC, Pembina Pipelines, Deloitte, and more who have taken it upon themselves to become more equitable quarter by quarter.
Regardless of what industry your company works in, B.O.OK. Club can provide transformative learning opportunities that can help you in your field. See what value B.O.O.K. Club brought to two very different industry leaders:
RETAIL
I recently asked Best Buy Canada's Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Carol Graziani, for some of her thoughts having seen three cohorts of Best Buy leaders take part thus far.
1. What did you find as a result of offering B.O.O.K. Club at Best Buy?
I learned that there is a lot more interest in expanding horizons than I thought!
2. What specifically do you like about B.O.O.K. Club?
I like the variety and curation of subject matter quarter-over-quarter and that participants might get the opportunity to meet some of the authors – which brings the human perspective to life, especially for the books that are more personal stories in nature.
3. Are there other benefits you see in B.O.O.K. Club?
I think the opportunity to meet leaders from other organizations and businesses can give insight into how other organizations are tackling these important issues. Our leaders and organization are better for it. Additionally, it’s a low-risk venue for men to potentially share their hang-ups about DEI in a brave space with highly skilled facilitators.
4. Would you recommend B.O.O.K. Club to other organizations?
I would definitely recommend it! A large part of our DEI efforts are around creating empathy and visibility to different perspectives and so this is a great compliment to what we already do. Including men in the journey to create a more equitable world is critical.
TECHNOLOGY
Canadian legal-tech unicorn Clio has been B.O.O.K. Club's day-one member sending cohorts of male leaders for all six sessions! I caught up with an inaugural member of Clio's DIBE Council, Ainsley Robertson, who also happened to be the champion behind and author of this amazing blog post on How we doubled the representation of women in Engineering at Clio.
1. What did you find as a result of offering B.O.O.K. Club at Clio?
We’ve seen some of our participants show up differently back at work, for example, feeling a bit more confident in speaking about diversity & inclusion issues. Not necessarily as an expert, but finding their voice and confidence in bringing up topics, asking questions and expressing their thoughts, even if they aren’t sure they’re saying quite the right thing.
This is transformational for a business like ours because it means that more people are part of the conversation, which demonstrates to others that this is a safe space to explore topics that are new or uncomfortable.
2. What specifically do you like about B.O.O.K. Club?
“The conversations had in B.O.O.K. Club are different than participants would have anywhere else - all D&I issues, but made up of “average people who aren’t experts in D&I but are striving together to try and get better at it in their own clumsy way.”
3. Are there other benefits you see in B.O.O.K. Club?
B.O.O.K. Club offers a great space to have preconceptions challenged - both by the book and by the group discussions. Participants feel safe to explore these topics without worrying about saying the wrong thing because B.O.O.K. Club creates a circle of trust.
4. Would you recommend B.O.O.K. Club to other organizations?
Absolutely. It’s a great way to bring more men into conversations about diversity and inclusion in general (not only about gender), outside of work and in an environment where the stakes may feel lower for learning something new and outside of their comfort zone.
The more conversations like this that we can invite men in leadership positions into, the more we’ll grow confidence in this domain for men and the more we’ll see them leaning into and driving diversity & inclusion initiatives in the workplace.
Too often, initiatives like this in the workplace end up “preaching to the choir” or elevating those already super passionate about the topic and with deep experience in it, which doesn’t create space for others to show up to learn and explore.
We host monthly Discussion Groups with this goal in mind at Clio but BOOK Club is a great addition to this initiative, which takes it a step further and invites men in leadership roles at Clio to explore these topics with peers outside of the company.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
So whether you're building the #1 legal software for clients, cases, billing, and more OR you're one of Canada's largest retailers enriching the lives of customers through technology – B.O.O.K. Club supports the engagement, education, and empowerment of male-identified leaders in your organization to move the needle on your organizational goals and culture related to DEI.