Read your fiction. It's good for you.
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The New York Times reports that fiction reading is trending up for the first time in a quarter century. Here's how they announced it.
"After years of bemoaning the decline of a literary culture in the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts says in a report that it now believes a quarter-century of precipitous decline in fiction reading has reversed. The report, “Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy,” being released Monday, is based on data from “The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts” conducted by the United States Census Bureau in 2008. Among its chief findings is that for the first time since 1982, when the bureau began collecting such data, the proportion of adults 18 and older who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen."
That report sparked the memory of some research I read last year. It was conducted by Professor Keith Oatley of the University of Toronto and his colleagues. It was published in the Review of General Psychology and summarized in an article in New Scientist. The article was titled: "The science of fiction."
What Oatley and his team found was that reading fiction can help you improve your Emotional Intelligence. Here's how Oatley thinks it works.
"I liken fiction to a simulation that runs on the software of our minds. And it is a particularly useful simulation because negotiating the social world effectively is extremely tricky, requiring us to weigh up myriad interacting instances of cause and effect. Just as computer simulations can help us get to grips with complex problems such as flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories and dramas can help us understand the complexities of social life."
There you have it, boys and girls. Reading business books may help you learn business skills, but reading novels just might do more to help you succeed.
In 2007 I was challenged to write a book. I have never written a book before so I did some research. I found that over 80% of book sales are women.
I spoke with one publisher who said “it’s a shame really; the average US adult only reads one book per year.”
So here’s my dilemma, if I am going to write a book, how do I write one that people will read, and ideally learn something new ?
I kept digging and found one of the reasons people do not read books is that they look big visually and feel like a commitment,... one more to do on an already way too busy schedule.
I also spoke with a Psychologist who said readers will remember content if the content is tied to an emotional response, a feeling.
So I wrote my book; Branding Backwards, in a very short format in the form of a story that teaches how businesses should brand their businesses with intension, or they will be branded by default.
My little experiment resulted in over 4,000 free downloads in 45 days. If your readers would like a free copy, they can go to www.outbsolutions.com and download a free copy.
The feedback I received was interesting as in my research, most business content books are only read approximately 2/3, however by writing my content in the form of a short story everyone finished the book.
Maybe more business books should be written in the form of fiction if we want to create more leaders that are readers?
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Thanks for adding that perspective and information. Human beings naturally use stories as a way to store, convey and share complex concepts. The Sufis have made a practice of their teaching stories, which include many that we don't associate with them, like the story of the blind men and the elephant.
The first business writer that I'm aware of to use a made-up story as a book was Ken Blanchard with The One Minute Manager, which has been in print now for more than a quarter century.
More recently, Jeff Cox did a fine job of working with Eliyahu Goldratt on their series of "business novels" starting with The Goal.
The best practitioner of the craft today is probably Patrick Lencioni with his books like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. And I can't leave out my own book, Performance Talk.
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Branding Backwards is perfectly suited for small business owners. The topic of branding is current and highly relevant to small business owners. These men and women must wear many "hats" every day to run their businesses . Surveys of small business owners consistently reveal that sales and marketing are the two most difficult "hats" a small business owner must successfully wear to remain in business in the long run and to prosper.
Small business owners are always going in many different directions at once often working long hours in the process. So being able to explain a complicated topic like branding in a relatively short amount of time is important. Branding Backwards completely explains the process of branding in an interesting fictional story that can easily be read in one sitting.
The overall effectiveness of any business book is largely measured by how effective the author was in explaining his subject, how well the subject matter was retained by the reader, and, finally, whether the subject matter was able to be used by the reader in his/her business to add future value. Branding Backwards accomplishes all of these things in a highly effective manner.
As a small business owner for seven years, I highly recommend Mark Robert's book to small business owners or anyone who is interested in learning about the topic of branding.
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As a psychologist/coach who also reads the occasional book of fiction, I absolutely concur with Mark's point that "readers will remember content if the content is tied to an emotional response, a feeling." Research has demonstrated this clearly.
The idea that emotional intelligence can be heightened to any appreciable degree by reading lacks credibility for me. I have known extremely learned, well-read professionals (including psychologists) who are significantly lacking in emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence CAN be improved, but doing so requires practice and experience in the real world of interpersonal emotional give and take. Although good fiction can and should stimulate emotion, it is fleeting and shallow, compared to that elicited in real world interaction. This may explain why use reading as a safe escape from, rather than as a preparation for, reality.
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Thanks for stopping by add adding that perspective. As I read the research, it doesn't say anything about the amount of improvement, merely that the researchers demonstrated that improvement was possible. And there's no attempt by Oatley to suggest that reading alone would create a dramatic change in EI.
My reading of the research on stories and how we process them leads me to see the research as credible, but you're absolutely right to note that we shouldn't read too much into it. Reading novels without practicing EI in real life may help, but it sure won't get you far.
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Thanks for the post, Wally. As a fiction writer myself (though I've been more successful with nonfiction), I'm glad to see this connection made.
It reminds me of something I heard Tom Peters say many years ago, talking about watching business travelers opening their laptops to work during their flights and how he thought at least some of that "work" might be counter-productive. He said, "[If] I’m sitting there reading Chekov, maybe I’ll get an IDEA."
So thanks again.
P.S. We put your Three Star Leadership Blog on the blogroll at NC State of Business: http://ncstateofbusiness.ies.ncsu.edu/. Thought you'd like to know.
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Nicely spoken, Gray. And thanks for letting me know about being added to the state site. I'm honored.
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thanks for helping to support my first love. Reading things totally unrelated to work.
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Meg, I understand that and now we can point to scientific evidence that it's not only fun, it's good for us. Thanks for adding your voice.
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