It all started with the BIG question on the table.
What are you reading this summer, and how are you finding the time to do it?
This Coffee Chat was a lighter edition and we kicked it off with a confession: "I don't have time to read" is often a convenient excuse. Shannon admitted she'd just spent an hour watching baby goats on YouTube, so, yeah, we all have minutes hiding somewhere. The idea of "reading in the flow of work" took off, with ideas like turning wait-room minutes into article time, listening to audiobooks on the commute, and swapping the phone game for a book. One participant swears by the Kindle app plus Hoopla and Libby, which connect to your local library card for free e-books.
Then the debates got fun. Do you finish every book you start, or do you quit if it doesn't grab you in the first couple chapters? (Spoiler: it depends on how much you paid for it.) Dog-ears or bookmarks? Highlighting or Post-it flags? Audiobooks or physical copies? Several people can't focus on audiobooks at all, and one pointed out that when the narrator's voice doesn't match the character in your head, it throws you right off. We also got into the readability of nonfiction, including why some design books don't follow their own slide rules and why book ink has gotten so light.
On the study-skills side, Andrew shared SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review), an old-school method for digesting a chapter by writing your own questions first and answering them as you read. Others noted that if you can't explain what you're reading to someone else, you probably haven't absorbed it yet. And Shannon shared why her nonfiction lives on her Kindle: she can highlight and annotate without feeling guilty about marking up a "book book."
The book recommendations came fast. On the L&D side: Julie Dirksen's Design For How People Learn, Rick Altman's Crush Your Next Virtual Presentation, Steve Spangler's The Engagement Effect, Katrina Kennedy's Learning That Lasts, Slideology, Presentation Zen, The Coaching Habit, The Power of Habit, Value Proposition Design, and Imagine It Forward. For leadership development, the group pointed to John Maxwell (with a few honest "not my style" votes), CliftonStrengths, DiSC for leadership, and a tiered two-year program one participant saw at a retailer. We also heard about book club ERGs that spin a wheel to pick the monthly read, plus collections of mythology, witchcraft, mysteries, and cookbooks.
The takeaway? Reading doesn't have to be a big production. Swap one scroll session for a chapter, keep a book (or a Kindle) with you, take notes somewhere you can find them later, and quit the book that isn't working. The chat's final tips included 30 minutes before bed, audiobooks while walking, and simply making time for yourself.
So what's the one book you're recommending this summer?
Stay curious!
-Shannon
Video
VimeoCoffee Chat: What We're Actually Reading: L&D Picks for SummerMore actions
Transcript Summary:
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Transcript:
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Chat Box:
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Resources:
Summer Learning Bingo
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Libby – Library ebook and audiobook app
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Hoopla – Library ebook and audiobook service
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BookBub
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Paperback Swap
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Stanford explanation of SQ3R
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Books:
Link to Reading List PDF
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These are the books mentioned but the links and titles are all in the PDF
Learning & Professional Development
- Learning That Lasts — Katrina Kennedy (mentioned multiple times)
- Slide:ology (written as "Slideology" in the chat)
- Graphic Design for Everyone
- L&D Order Taker No More
- Design for How People Learn — Julie Dirksen
- Crush Your Next Virtual Presentation — Rick Altman
- The Engagement Effect — Steve Spangler
- Interact and Engage — Kassy LaBorie
- The Coaching Habit — Michael Bungay Stanier (mentioned multiple times)
- Coaching for Performance — Sir John Whitmore
- Leadership and the One Minute Manager — Ken Blanchard
- It's the Manager: Moving From Boss to Coach — Jim Clifton & Jim Harter
- The Infinite Game — Simon Sinek
- Presentation Zen — Garr Reynolds
- The Trusted Learning Advisor — Keith Keating
- Think Again — Adam Grant
Fiction & Literature
- The Warmth of Other Suns — Isabel Wilkerson
- The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife — Anna Johnston
- Seascapes and Other Kinnakeet Stories — Bernie Lewis
- Out There Screaming — edited by Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams
- The Correspondent — Virginia Evans
- Remarkably Bright Creatures — Shelby Van Pelt
- West with Giraffes
- We Did OK, Kid — Anthony Hopkins
Biographies
- Betty White Biography(title not specified)
- We Did OK, Kid — Anthony Hopkins
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Host: Shannon Tipton
Podcast produced by: Obsidian Productions
