A question that we like to ask candidates during an interview is: “Do you like to learn?”. The love of learning is a common thread that runs through the E-g team. We believe that people who find joy in learning make for great consultants who enjoy their work. The technology industry changes very rapidly so learning really must be part of our work lifestyle. New technologies are emerging everyday. Not only must we maintain proficiency with the technologies we’re using in the “now”, we must be tuned into those that are emerging and maturing. Adapting to the fast-evolving tech landscape not only keeps us relevant but empowers us to offer innovative solutions to our customers.
We live in a time where the resources available to us are incredibly abundant. The availability of online courses, training programs and books is just amazing. Even more fantastic is the portion of these resources that are free. Free Code Camp is just one example of a fantastic resource and community that helps eager learners craft a career in software development.
The Book Club
Several years ago, we started organizing book clubs and they’ve been going strong ever since. This can certainly mean Audio Book, of course. We have many folks who are huge audiobook fans.
What’s been wonderful to see is the breadth of subject matter that these clubs cover. It’s a great testament to the broad interest levels of the people of E-g. Book clubs provide a path to greater social connectedness as well. We often work in small teams and book clubs cut across the organization, so we get to spend time with people we might not see much otherwise. We also have a great mix of experience levels, which of course means that learning happens up and down the experience axis. The more experienced folks stand to learn just as much from those who are just starting their career.
The logistics for book clubs are super light: Anyone is free to suggest a book in our #bookclub Slack channel. If there’s enough interest, books are purchased and a recurring meeting is booked. The facilitator evaluates the material to determine how to divide it up into chunks appropriate for productive discussion. It might even be the case where chapters need not be covered sequentially so the facilitator can mix them up as needed.
Book Clubs have led to some material changes within the organization. Nine Lies about Work, for example, influenced the redesign of our employee review process.
Diverse Subject Matter
While we do love learning about technology, it’s actually not so common to have a book club around technical subjects. We have many resources available to us for those more detailed areas.
Human psychology is very popular. We like to think about how we think! Some examples include Nine Lies about Work, Thinking, Fast and Slow and Deep Work.
Software engineering practices and processes are also very popular. Examples include The Lean Startup, Lean Enterprise, The Phoenix Project, The DevOps Handbook, Project to Product and Accelerate. Shout out to the great folks at IT Revolution Press!
A Focus on Improvement
E-g is filled with people that actively seek out improvement. How can we think differently about how we organize our work? How can we get and provide high quality feedback to help each other grow? How can we deliver excellent value efficiently? Ultimately, these book clubs create ways for us to find joy in our work while delighting our customers.
Integrity. Excellence. People. Read other stories that shine a light on our core values.
