Cameron Herold explains why he requires employees to do book reports. He uses them to trigger adult learning through the four stages: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. His example: read Meeting Sucks, then give a five-minute summary of what you learned and what you'll change.
So I did a post recently on.
Social media about having employees read books on specific topic areas to get better.
At them and to learn better. And somebody asked why I would have.
Them do a book report. He said it feels like a make work school project and he'd never worked for a company like that. So clearly A he didn't understand what I was talking about or why I would do it and B, maybe I didn't clarify.
So I'll explain. The book report is not a make work project and it's not micromanaging employees find, far from it.
It's exactly the opposite because I've always had the org chart upside down where the CEO is at the bottom, supporting the VPs, supporting the employees, supporting the customers.
So I'm in more of a supportive role. Part of the adult learning process is.
They go through four cycles of adult learning. So the first stage of learning is the abstract conceptualization.
It's when they learn the concept such as reading a book.
The second part is the active experimentation. That's the role playing, the practicing, the trying it out. The third part is the concrete experience of actually doing the work and actually going through the model.
And the fourth is reflective observation, thinking.
About their learning, talking about their learning. So the idea with a book report is let's say that you want all your employees to get better at running.
Meetings, have them read the book meeting suck, have them all read the book.
Meeting suck over the course of a.
Week and then on Monday have them.
All get together in a group, a small group, and each do a five minute book report verbally, off the top.
Of their head on what they learned, what they loved about the book and.
What they're going to put in place from it. Again, not as a book report in.
School, but but to help the learning.
Sink in, to help learn from each other's and to help the reflective observation part. So that's why you do the book reports after learning. It's to help grow people. It's not because you're trying to micromanage them or oversee them. It's actually one of the courses that I teach in my invest in your leaders course is the classroom teaching component and the adult learning cycles. So adults learn by visual, auditory and kinesthetic. And then they have to have the four stages of learning, the code, it's called the cold learning cycles, to actually really learn and have the ideas really stick. So that's the methodology behind it. I wouldn't be able to build the companies that I do and have the amazing company cultures that I do if I was micromanaging employees and having them do book reports like teachers do. So that's the idea behind it. Hopefully that explains. Hope it's helpful. Try it out.
