Read a Good Book Lately? Keep it to Yourself!

We've all been there - the boss comes in one Monday morning with a pile of books and an evangelical grin on his face.

You exchange glances with your colleagues. You all know what's just happened, and you know what's going to happen next.

He's just spent the weekend reading the latest management book. He's full of enthusiasm for the idea he's got and he wants you to be full of it too.

And there's the problem.

A few years ago there was a fly-on-the-wall documentary about a firm of estate agents in London. The chief gathered the sales force in some hotel for a weekend staff conference. On the Friday afternoon, everyone was given a copy of Who Moved My Cheese and told they had to read it by Saturday morning's first session.

Now to be fair, it is a short book. Reading it in the time isn't the problem. Nor is it a hard book. It's a simple parable of two mice in a maze, one of whom adapts to change, the other resists change. Not terribly taxing even after a week of trying to steal customers from your colleagues. It was that kind of firm.

The team were not keen to "do their homework" and those that did failed to see the point. There was friction, resentment and disagreement the following day between the team and the boss.

You see, when we get a great idea from a book, we sometimes think that it was the book that did it. This is what philosophers call "post hoc" thinking (Latin: "after this"). It goes like this: "I had the blinding revelation of what we should do in this company / team after starting to read this book, therefore it was the book that gave me the inspiration. If I make everyone in the team read the book, they'll be inspired too."

post hoc is a fallacy, however. It wasn't the book that had the idea. Like a teenager falling in love, you've projected your own emotional state onto something outside yourself. And like a teenager falling in love, you expect all your mates to agree that she/he's the greatest in the world. Even if she/he has never actually looked at you twice!

If it wasn't the book that had the idea, where did it come from?

Your inspiration came from a combination of sources, one of which was the book or training course, naturally. The other sources were nothing to do with the book: your business circumstances, a recent issue you faced, where you were when you read the book, what you'd had for breakfast that morning - all these things added up to put you in exactly the right frame of mind to have that "wow" moment. And you can't replicate that for other people.

I'm not advocating ignoring all business ideas that you get - I'm suggesting that the means to propagate them is not by handing out copies of the book. Ideas and inspiration are human, and they are specific to you and your team in your current circumstances. The best way to share them is not to impose on other people's free time by handing out homework - it's to get up in front of them and explain how you got the idea, why you think it's important and to ask them for their support and ideas of how to make it work.

(Declaration of interest: Dave Bull designs and runs management courses designed to help you get that message across in a confident, enthusiastic, assertive, positive, inclusive manner. Dave has not (yet?) published any books.)

The real source of the inspiration was inside you. To pass it on, you have to show them you, not the book.

All the best,

Dave Bull
Team Coaching Network Ltd - http://www.teamcoachingnetwork.com
Campaign for Real Teambuilding - http://realteambuilding.co.uk