Kama on Running a Book Group

Several months ago, I formed a book group. I thought there was a need for one in my neighborhood and I really wanted to make sure I was making time to read beyond what I need to read for professional and educational reasons.

I decided to organize the group on Meetup, a social network I’ve long been a member of, although not always the most active participant. The group meets once a month, and we have a pretty democratic process for picking books. At our meeting, someone may suggest a theme for next month (we’ve done “Classics I Can’t Believe I Never Read!” and “Pulitzer Prize Winners” thus far), but mostly we just leave it open. Nominations are done on a discussion board, with the first five nominated books being put up for a vote.

The group is six months old, and membership is usually around 52-57 people. We have about 12 regulars who come to discussions, nominate books, and vote, a couple who rotate in and out, and there’s always last minute cancellations. Family obligations or an unexpected deadline at work take priority after all! After running the group for a couple of months, I noticed some people joined, and then never visited the site again. My guess is they were “aspirational” joins, so I’ve implemented a policy that anyone who hasn’t been active in two months is removed from the group, with an invitation to rejoin when he or she has time in their life to participate.

I’d love to figure out a way to get the rest of the members more involved. I set up the group so any member can suggest alternate dates and times since we can never accommodate everyone’s schedule, nor would a large group be conducive to a discussion, but so far no one has been interested in organizing  another date (and I’m not interested in organizing more than one a month).

Our last discussion was about an entirely new genre for me and one I was very excited about exploring: graphic novels. Blankets by Craig Thompson is an autobiographical coming of age story, exploring being an outsider, loss of faith, and youthful passion.  I though it perfectly captured in visual and narrative form what falling in love for the first time felt like. I was especially pleased with this discussion, because the book was nominated by someone very passionate about graphic novels, and everyone in the group who hadn’t read one before expressed gratitude for being introduced to the form.  Moments like those really make the organizing work – and some of the hassles – of running the group really worth it. It felt good to be part of that!

Remember youthful adoration and idealization?

Our next read is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I’ll admit I cringed a bit when this book was nominated, although I didn’t express that at all (criticism of nominations is not allowed!). I read the book when I was in college (not part of a class), and didn’t like it. But, a big part of a book group is listening to how other people relate to a piece of work and learning from that, and it’s also been a long time so I think I’ll probably read the book differently today than my younger self did.

Is anyone else a member of a book group? If so, I’d love to hear what you think works to get members involved.

Earlier: Kama on Don’t Make Me Think!

Webcast: The Enemy of Engagement, Canadian Management Centre

Canadian Management Centre will be doing a webcast with Mark Royal and Tom Agnew, the authors of The Enemy of Engagement: Put an End to Workplace Frustration–and Get the Most from Your Employees to explore the top employee engagement questions asked during Canadian Management Centre’s National Thought Leader Series the authors participated in.

The Enemy of Engagement
Thursday, December 8, 2011
1:00 – 2:00 PM EST
Price: FREE
Register HERE.

New data collected by Hay Group management consultants suggest that many high-potential employees are also frustrated employees. Individuals who are highly engaged but face barriers at work preventing them from doing their jobs effectively represent 20 percent or more of the workforce. That’s a whopping number, and one that provides a devastating critique of workplace cultures today, with their procedural red tape, ever-shifting priorities, and persistent demands to do more with less.

Join Mark Royal and Tom Agnew in a one-hour webinar to explore the top employee engagement questions asked during Canadian Management Centre’s National Thought Leader Series. Bring your own employee engagement questions to this live, interactive webinar.

Mark Royal and Tom Agnew are leaders in the employee research division of Hay Group, a global management consulting firm. With 85 offices in 49 countries, Hay Group works with clients across every major industry and sector to transform research insights into actionable business strategies. Mark Royal holds a Ph.D. and MA degrees in sociology from Stanford University. Tom Agnew received his Ph.D. in management from Vanderbilt University and MBA from the University of Saskatchewan.

Customer Service During the Holiday Season Roundup

Here’s a roundup of advice and books shared during our Customer Service During the Holiday Season theme week here on the AMACOM Books Blog.

• Books for Customer Service During the Holiday Season
• Micah Solomon on Building Customer Loyalty in Retail During the Holiday Rush
• Renee Evenson on Customer Service Training Tips for the Holidays
• Jim Joseph on Whether Temporary Holiday Rush Employees Hurt the Brand
• Customer Service During the Holiday Season Giveaway: Buying Styles

We hope that has helped prepare you for the holiday rush!

Customer Service During the Holiday Season Giveaway: Buying Styles

It’s Black Friday! To cap off our Customer Service During the Holiday Season week, we’d like to give away a copy of Buying Styles: Simple Lessons in Selling the Way Your Customers Buys by Michael Wilkinson with Richard Smith, Tierah Chorba, and Lynn Sokler to five lucky winners. Leave a comment on the post below within the next week with your number one customer service tip or trick for a chance to win a copy of the book.

Here are some of the behaviors you hopefully won’t be seeing from customers today:

• They waste your time and then do nothing.
• The buyer send you to purchasing.
• They aren’t clear what they want, and they change things.
• They don’t return your phone calls.
• They want to tell you their life story.

Remember: Leave your customer service tip below for a chance to win one of five copies of Buying Styles.

Jim Joseph on Whether Temporary Holiday Rush Employees Hurt the Brand

The following is a guest post by Jim Joseph, author of The Experience Effect, on how brand managers should think about customer service during the holidays.

We are entering the hectic holiday season and that means one thing: shopping! This is make-it or break-it time for many brands and almost all retailers. It’s a scary time for retailers in particular. The lion’s share of retail sales and almost all profits happen in the last two months of the year.

Retailers handle this surge in seasonal demand by bringing in temporary help to stock shelves and serve customers. The problem is that temporary employees are often not “in the game” like permanent employees, which can damage their store in ways that retail managers might not consider.

First, we have to recognize that retail employees are the brand. Employees on the floor are the face of the company—what shoppers experience and what the retailer ultimately stands for; they are the part of the brand that customers interact with.

The truth is that the holiday season may be the only experience that many shoppers have with the brand. This may be the only experience that they know or remember. So it better be good.

An employee that is “off brand” doesn’t represent the brand well. When a temporary employee doesn’t offer the same level of service as the other employees, then the experience won’t be ideal for the customer, and the customer may get a bad impression.

Good retailers avoid this trap by:

• Training. They prepare “Brand Books” and “Training Guides” to teach temporary employees about the brand, store customer service policies, and provide rules of engagement on the sales floor.
• Enlisting help from permanent employees. Retailers should engage the regular employees to help train and guide temporary employees. Empower them to monitor and report behavior that is not “on brand,” as well as to correct it.
• Recruiting former workers. Smart retailers bring back many of the same temporary employees year after year, especially those people that embody the brand and have a good memory for what to do from year to year.

Ultimately, good retailers orchestrate the overall retail brand experience. They actively think about the experience that they want their customers to have and what they want their customers to remember about their brand. They hire and train for that vision. They put the best people on the retail floor (temporary and permanent) and cast their employees as if they were putting on a show.

Because during the holiday season, in many ways they are! Have a great holiday season!

Jim Joseph is the author of The Experience Effect: Engage Your Customers with a Consistent and Memorable Brand Experience, President of Lippe Taylor and Professor at New York University (NYU).

Yesterday… Renee Evenson on Customer Service Training Tips for the Holidays.

Coming tomorrow… Customer Service During the Holiday Season Giveaway: Buying Styles.