Create a Library

Problem:

Most people in your group don’t know all the cool stuff you know or haven’t read the latest books.

Solution:

Sometimes it’s hard to have a meaningful conversation with your co-workers because they can’t relate to all the things you’re learning.  So make it as easy as possible for them to gain the same knowledge as you, create a library at your desk.

Some people are very protective of their books (I know I can be, especially the signed ones) but ideas that spread, win, so we should do our part to spread the good ones.

Bring in a handful of your favorite business books, create some kind of a check-out sheet so you know who has it and for how long, and spread the word(s).

At first, they may not all be scrambling to check out your books, so you might have to bring up the ideas in conversations a little more, or apply them in your work and tell people the source.  Then mention, “By the way, I have a copy of that book right at my desk you could check out for a while.”

With a very low barrier for them to get their hands on the actual source, you’ll make the spread of ideas easy.  And you’ll be a source of learning, the person people go to to find the latest thinking.

Plus, if you get a few people to read a book, you’ll have something in common and interesting to talk about.  It’ll bond you as a group in a different way.  You might even be able to start a small movement to implement the things you’ve learned.

That’s good grootship.  That’s being a Linchpin.