the pragmatist book club

There are many expensive ways to train your people. Many of them require consultants. Many of these consultants have done some basic business math. They know that the fixed cost of developing a few decks only has to hit them once. And they can then use those decks for everyone, no matter how relevant they are.

Whether you’re working with a pricey consultant or not, I recommend a pragmatist book club. These clubs cost ~$20 / per person - the price of a paperback and maybe a cup of coffee. 

The pragmatist part is important. You and your people are reading this book to find things to do and use. The measure of the book’s quality is its usefulness. And you can make good use even of a book that has crummy prose, unnecessary content, and weak empirical evidence. You don’t need to cook every recipe in the cookbook - if there are one or two really good dishes, that book was worthwhile.

Outside of the K-12 context, this is often seen as a little didactic and annoying. I say do it anyway: give your people homework. Pick something you want them to do, or say, or try that came up in the book. Do this for each session, each discussion. 

The homework is important - it’s a way to ensure that you’re getting real action and durable learning, even from a dubious book. It forces you and your people to create instead of critique.

-Eric