Here at Strivin we love a good read and believe that digesting and dissecting as much content as possible really helps you understand and manage the twists and turns of your career and personal life.
And that’s why we created Book Club.
This blog is a quick overview of what Book Club is all about and how to prepare for a Book Club session.
Is a book club for you?
The Strivin Book Club isn’t about sitting around a table dissecting literature line-by-line, or spotting double-entendres in otherwise dull novels; it’s about discussing great books that could help us in our day-to-day lives and meeting amazing authors that can help us all get (and keep) our sh*t together.
But we realise that calling it a ‘Book Club’ might be off-putting for some people. So, for the sake of explaining why Book Club is a must-attend, let’s call it Jeff.
Jeff introduces you to new ideas
We all have ideas and preconceptions about ourselves, our careers, best-practices in our specialism and so on. Jeff is the kind of guy that questions those preconceptions, in a caring way; he challenges you to think critically and uses real life examples and personal experience to help you enhance your own ideas.
Jeff provides clarity
Sometimes we read something, watch something, hear something and know it makes a little bit of sense but find it hard to apply to our own situation – we need a bit of helping making the advice work for us. That’s where Jeff comes in. You can ask him for context, clarification and delve deeper into his thoughts to help guide you.
Jeff keeps you on track
It’s easy to get busy and forget to put yourself and your career first and sometimes you need a little bit of accountability to keep you on track. When you know you have a meeting with Jeff you have more of a reason to, say, read a new book, or write down questions and thoughts that are going to help you along on your career development journey.
In summary – Jeff is good. Do more Jeff.
Spot the double-entendre in that 😉
What does a Strivin Book Club session look like?
Most of our Book Club sessions will be held online, meaning you can join from the comfort of your own home.
The format is simple; we start with an introduction to our amazing author, who will take us through their book – what it’s about, why they wrote it and what some of the key outtakes are. Then, we’ll run through questions from session attendees.
How to prep for Book Club
If you’ve registered for a Book Club session, here’s how to make the most of it.
Start by reading the book
Seems obvious, right? But it is helpful to have at least skim read the important parts of the book we’re going to discuss.
One of the best ways to really embed your learnings from a book is to write down your thoughts, questions and interpretation of the ideas and discuss them.
Don’t have time? If you’re busy and don’t have time to read a whole book, we highly recommend downloading a chapter from the book (which most authors offer for free), reading the synopsis, and watching some interviews to get an idea of the key themes throughout the book. This way you can start to think about your interpretation of the ideas and some things you might like to discuss.
Prepare some questions
As mentioned above, discussion and application is the best form of embedding your learning, so get ready to chat! As you’re reading the book, write a list of questions, or even challenges, that you can discuss with the author or book group. Remember to highlight your most important question.
In the week before your Strivin Book Club session you can share your questions with the Strivin team (we’ll send a link and instructions on how to do that) so even if you have technical difficulty or are feeling a little shy we can make sure your questions are answered.
Relax, have fun …and meet some people
Our Book Club is informal, is intended to be fun and there are no expectations around your level of contribution, so grab a coffee (or wine depending on the time of day), join the session, relax and enjoy.
