As corporate learning and talent teams explore innovative ways to help support informal learning in their organizations, facilitated book discussions using readily-available online resources can be organized without large budgets.

After conducting quarterly leadership book discussion for two years in Chicago and more recently in Milwaukee, and Indianapolis, we’re excited to announce our first leadership book discussion as a breakout session at this year’s conference.

• The Wisdom of Crowds (2004, James Surowiecki)
• The Power of We: Succeeding Through Partnerships (2004, Jonathan M. Tisch)

Interested in using book discussions in your organization? Here are some lessons learned:

• Limit sessions to less than two hours, but encourage collaboration and networking time
• Leverage more engaging small group discussions – allocate 10 minutes at the end of the session for each small group to share with the larger group
• Recommend book summaries as “optional” – some leaders prefer to read more in-depth
• Create a regular schedule (e.g., quarterly or monthly) while picking current business book titles that are relevant to the contemporary workplace dynamics