"Companies Become Stronger Through 'Books'" by Eriko Miyamoto

There are companies that have incorporated reading into their management
and elevated it into their corporate culture.

It's not just the president and management team,
but for employees too, reading is the norm.
Moreover, introspection and dialogue begin with books as the starting point,
and reading groups are springing up spontaneously all over the company.

Really??
I thought, and decided to read it.

"Companies Become Stronger Through 'Books'" by Eriko Miyamoto

The author is a professional writer,
and this book was written after long-term reporting.

The company that serves as the setting is the famous cloud accounting software company,
Money Forward, Inc.

13 years since founding, 40 billion in sales, 2,900 employees.
It's a younger company than I had imagined,
and both sales and the number of employees are growing rapidly.

The president loves books.

The starting point of the reading culture is,
as expected, that the president loves books.

It is said that the inspiration to start Money Forward
also came from an encounter with a book.

That might be a reason added in hindsight,
but it is true that reading a book and feeling empathy or being deeply moved by it
can actually be the catalyst that significantly changes one's life later on.

It's not that one book changes your life,
but rather that you are influenced by many books, which then turn into your own convictions,
which feels more natural.

As these words suggest,
the top leadership themselves read books and share their own learning and impressions,
and they encourage all employees to acquire the habit of reading and learning.

In an environment like this, reading books is the norm.
Those who don't read might feel out of place (laughs).

Read → Think → Dialogue/Share → Practice

As a matter of course,
reading a book is not the end
don't just leave it at reading
connect it to action is what is important

Read, think, engage in dialogue, and practice

Input to think
Once you notice something, try doing it
Share that process with the team

Raise your perspective, cultivate questions
Dialogue and discussion begin with books and reading as the starting point
The goal is to move from reading to action and practice
Increase the amount of action
Reading as a stimulus for that purpose

Time for self-reflection through questions and dialogue is important

Reading a book is merely the starting point
How you perceive it, how you think about it
How you develop it from there
Questions and dialogue are important

Talk about the vision
Pose questions
Share thoughts and feelings
Receive the wisdom of predecessors

By reading books, the quality of decision-making is ensured

It is truly an enviable environment where
dialogue begins with books as the starting point

Know → Understand → Execute → Teach

Books are abstracted knowledge and experience
Extract the essence and organize it with structured notes
Once you have internalized it, you need to make it concrete

Gradually expand the scope of action
Go back and forth between the concrete and the abstract

Reading is incorporated into the in-house training system

Training systems for executive-level and leader-level staff are introduced

"Reading Sessions" for general manager-level staff

• Held once a year, a 5-part series

• Management (executives) serve as instructors

• Read assigned books and engage in dialogue

Past assigned books look something like this

• Competitive Strategy as a Story

• The Multiplication of Management and Design

• AI 2041

• Trillion Dollar Coach

Some books are quite thick,
so it seems like it would be hard to read through them all

Leadership Fundamentals Program (LFP) for leader development training

• A series of 3-4 sessions per half-year

• Eight assigned books are given

• It's not mandatory, but it provides a good sense of pressure

The standard assigned books are these two

• High Output Management (Andrew S. Grove, Intel)

• Notes on Becoming a Manager (Tadashi Yanai)

Others

• The Effective Executive

• Requirements for Top-Tier Managers

• Firms of Endearment

• The Amazon Way

• Psychological Management

• 1-on-1 Meetings (Kosuke Honma)

and so on

"Book Clubs" organized by internal volunteers

When someone calls for a meeting, people gather spontaneously.
People from departments I don't know at all come together.

There don't seem to be any strict rules, but
a small group size of 4 to 8 people is the standard.
Because they value dialogue over presentations,
they likely keep it small so that everyone can speak.

They meet online, and
each person prepares slides for their presentation.
The right half is blank.
Participants write comments in the margins in real-time.

Is it Google Slides, perhaps?

There are meetings where even those who haven't read the book can participate.
It's also acceptable to use a round-robin reading system where you only read and present your assigned part.
This lowers the barrier to participation.

It's okay if you don't finish reading the whole thing.
Even reading just one page thoroughly can count as having read it.

First, it's about coming into contact with knowledge.
Action starts from there.

Having time to encounter the thoughts of others.

On the spot, you think for yourself, and
it's important how you make it a part of yourself.

Book-related topics are flying around on the internal Slack.

When you hear "internal social media," you might think it would be flooded with idle chatter, but
the fact that book topics are flying around is just, "Wow!"
That's the impression I get.

Psychological safety,
learning from each other, and sharing knowledge
seem to have taken root as a culture.

I'm sure there were many struggles before it reached this point,
but I'll leave that to your imagination.
That was the feeling.

Social Library Concept

I am also imagining it on my own,
I will make it a reality someday!

President Tsuji of Money Forward, the subject of this book, is also a resident of note

Introduction video of the author

Dialogue seminar between the author and the insider (talking extensively for one hour)

To prevent people from trying to one-up others and things like that,
sharing the purpose and having a facilitator is important
was the topic of discussion

This article was written by

Shigeki Kawahara, a "Future Realization Partner" who increases revenue pillars
https://mousoubiz.com/
https://twitter.com/mousoubiz