Reading as a business investment in the era of AI – this is the slogan of this year's, second edition of the conference Reading for Democracy organized by the Universal Reading Foundation. The conference included 4 discussion panels in two locations, with the participation of an international group of experts, two of which took place during EFNI European Forum for New Ideas.
Can reading culture become an element of business strategy? How does reading support the competences of the future, the potential of employees in today's changing labor market, how does it build critical thinking of employees and citizens in a world filled with information? These are the main questions that were answered from a multi-sectoral perspective by speakers at the meetings, scientists and business representatives, leaders of foreign non-governmental organizations and representatives of the European Commission. Several of the interlocutors who took part in the discussions appeared in Poland for the first time.
The future belongs to the readers
In the era of artificial intelligence development, questions about the future of many professions, as well as lists of professions at risk, are increasingly emerging. When looking for a constructive perspective on this topic, one should focus on tasks and features that cannot be replaced. Undoubtedly, these include critical thinking and in-depth analysis. Reading is an underestimated but powerful tool that develops these skills, because it effectively supports the development of our brain. It also affects the ability to empathize, cooperate, understand others - all of this increases the competences of employees, who - if they read - improve the efficiency of the entire company on many levels. – says Maria Deskur, president of the Universal Reading Foundation.
Supporting reading among employees and the community around companies is becoming not only profitable for business, but also necessary: this is how Jonathan Douglas, president of the largest British pro-reading organization, and Roisin Sharkey, director of sustainable development at KPMG UK, founders of the social and corporate project, see the issue Literacy Business Pledge. This is an initiative that currently involves over 100 large companies from many different sectors, all of which sign an annual commitment to work for the reading of their employees and their business environment (throughout the supply chain!). Ten years after the first declaration, the group of signatories has become a visible group of influence: they are consulted by the Ministry of Education in the area of reforming the teaching of reading in the context of building the competences of future employees.
Reading has a positive impact on the health and well-being of employees – so it is no surprise that access to reading is becoming a natural thing in the company – said Mikołaj Małaczyński from Legia. Reading is inclusive – it brings people together in conversation and exchange of ideas, so it helps build relationships within teams. Introducing a reading promotion policy in a company can increase work efficiency and support the development of the entire organization.
The company Jeronimo Martins is also involved in promoting reading. We sell over 12 million books annually in the Biedronka chain. Children's educational titles are always an element of our largest and most popular loyalty campaign. For 10 years, we have also been organizing the "Piórko" literary competition, in which we have sold 560 thousand books so far. These are important activities for us, and their results show that it is worth implementing the mission in this area, as a responsible business, as well as a partner and employer. – said Arkadiusz Mierzwa, Corporate Communications Director at Jeronimo Martins. Incorporating the realization of socio-intellectual value into the everyday fulfillment of customer needs can help the brand become even more closely associated with its customers. – he added.
The topic of using reading to build a company's success was discussed in more detail during the meeting at Goyki 3 Art Inkubator, where scientists discussed the impact of reading on the brain, business representatives gave examples of using reading to build the development and social capital of companies and a strong image of a socially responsible organization, and activists from non-governmental organizations talked about effective, mutually beneficial partnerships with business.
Reading, or development
The starting point for the considerations was why it is worth investing in the promotion of reading. Scientific evidence confirmed by research was presented by a professor of psychodevelopmental linguistics, prof. dr hab. Ewa Haman: Promoting reading is supposed to lead to social change, and for this to happen, it must occur at an individual level. Reading among young children is about joint activity with an adult. A book enriches the child's linguistic environment, which they themselves must develop. They will know best how to do this if they are readers themselves. The first step is a book, and the second is what to do with it. This applies to reading with children before adults, which is still treated very academically, and should actually start as early as possible.
Prof. Ryszard Koziołek spoke about the social role of reading: In the social dimension, it is not reading itself that is key, but what we do with it. The task is to liberate a non-egotistical model of reading, in which the reader wants to talk about matters that become more understandable or interesting thanks to it. Unfortunately, such a school of reading is missing in Poland. This is the task of the education system, but not only. The goal is that through reading and the conversation that accompanies it, a subject capable of public expression will be born, thanks to the courage, competence, self-confidence and rhetorical power liberated in this way.
Private-public-social partnerships
The view of the central institution was presented by Michał Rydzewski from the National Centre for Culture: From our point of view, it is important to build a relationship between reading and pleasure, in this way trying to make reading a tool for building citizenship. As a public institution, we have based our activities mainly on cooperation with libraries. In this way, we build a positive relationship between public places and reading, and we support the willingness to interact and share stories about books. We provide tools to activate enthusiasts who themselves find ideas for engaging non-readers in the field of reading: this is how the BLISKO program works, with which we have covered 200 libraries in Poland, each of which has built a network around itself supporting the development of reading.
Dr. Joerg Maas, president of the largest German pro-reading organization, Stiftung Lesen, and president of the EURead association, which brings together such organizations from various countries, also spoke about the German experience in this area. Fulfilling the mission of promoting reading requires going out into society with this topic. This is what Stiftung Lesen did, including by taking action with the McDonald's brand. The result was the distribution of 80 million books for children. 48-52% families later went to libraries and bookstores, buying more books by well-known authors. This was an important conclusion for us, we need to be where the potential recipients of such activities go, including people with lower income, education or who are otherwise disadvantaged - he said.
The next part of the conversation was supplemented by experts’ experiences in the field of how to encourage businesses to take pro-reading actions and cooperate in this area.
KPMG co-creates and finances a program associating companies that encourage boards to invest in promoting reading. We see a strong mutual benefit in this. Reading develops empathy, creativity and other soft skills that are so sought after today. Equipping employees with them is very important from the point of view of employers.
The Business Literacy Pledge is about our social responsibility, but also about business acting unanimously on a specific issue. Together we can have a real impact on decision-makers, because, for example, together we need society to form employees who think critically, are competent, and have the skills that are achieved by reading. KPMG combines the strengths of over 100 brands. Corporate social responsibility is in many cases as much as 20% of our budgets, which is why we encourage you to link them to the promotion of reading. Our very broad involvement in its promotion also includes employee volunteering. This is an opportunity to become a responsible, proud entrepreneur who broadly reaches out to various environments. The future of business
and the economy depends on the level of reading, i.e. the development of communities and their individuals – said Roisin Sharkey, Sustainability Director, KPMG UK.
Magdalena Kozioł, Michelin Polska, spoke about implementing the reading promotion strategy in the context of employee benefits: We offer employees access to e-books and books because we believe that reading books really develops the team. For us, these are activities that also fit into trends related to ecology and digitalization. This is consistent with our company's policy, as well as our image and development strategy. Such offers for business, which can be used as a non-wage benefit - which employees are happy to use for entertainment, but also for development, are very necessary and beneficial for both parties. It is access to resources that also support professional development. The benefit is also supposed to be a real benefit for the employee, which builds satisfaction and reduces turnover in a dynamic labor market. In our company, almost half of the employees use e-books as part of the benefits, which makes us very happy.
Mutual benefits of reading promotion
The need to find benefits for both parties involved in the development of reading, public and private partners, was indicated in all discussions. The motivation for businesses joining the Literacy Business Pledge is not fundamentally philanthropic. Businesses taking pro-reading actions are motivated by something more. The British Football League, by emphasizing the role of reading, is responding to its own need for the public to see them not as people just for physical development. A large property development company is building a positive image of itself in the local communities where it invests in land. A large cosmetics company has created a campaign that shows girls reading as an expression of commitment to their inner (not just outer) beauty.
We are cooperating with companies, each of which is involved in readership in its own scope, with different motivations and methods of action, aimed at different groups of recipients. At the same time, these entities also work together, jointly, unanimously within the framework of a signed strategy, inspire each other and learn from each other. – Jonathan Douglas, who as chairman of the National Literacy Trust is responsible for the involvement of such companies as KPMG, McDonald's and even the Premier League in the development of reading, told us. The activities of his organization are patronized by Queen Camilla, who is strongly involved in activities promoting reading.
The most critical will survive
Conference Literacy for Democracy touched upon another context of the relationship between reading and business, namely the development of artificial intelligence, in the face of which more and more questions arise. Critical thinking training is essential in today's times as a tool for building brain resilience and our information security, and reading is a fundamental factor necessary for practicing critical thinking. This is particularly important in times of disinformation and cooperation with AI. Meanwhile, this is still an underestimated and underfunded area, which, after all, builds social resilience.
Investments in citizens begin during the school period, while the development opportunities graph is the opposite – the greatest support is needed already in the first years after birth – appealed Maria Deskur, leading a panel devoted to investing in the development of citizens’ critical thinking.
During the first three years of life, children who will become adult citizens learn to communicate in interaction with adults. Investment in development support at this stage is crucial. – added Prof. Ewa Haman. She also commented on the dangers associated with ubiquitous screens, including their use by the youngest: Reading on a screen and on paper is completely different. In the first case, concentration is significantly hindered. This apparent multitasking that devices provide means that we actually lose the ability to concentrate on one thing, because we do not practice concentration. - she explained.
By building our critical, analytical and synthetic, deductive and inductive thinking, reading becomes our ideal protection against manipulation, argued Maia Mazurkiewicz, president of the PZU Foundation: In an era of widespread disinformation, the word “truth” is one of the most commonly used to polarize. As a country and society, we should better communicate science in general, including the need to develop reading and reading skills. It is precisely these specific benefits that are associated with it today that should be pointed out – she added.
Reading is a tool for democracy and economic development
40% parents waste the opportunity to support the development of their children's brains at an early stage, which is very difficult to compensate for in education. Therefore, it is crucial to convince parents of the validity of such actions. Today, 75 million adults in Europe cannot read with understanding, do not have properly developed writing and reading skills. Therefore, programs promoting reading in companies are needed to engage employees in their families as well – said Dr. Joerg Maas emphatically. It was these premises that served to write the Ljubljana Reading Manifesto mentioned during the conversation, which closely links the topic with the issue of the democratic nature of societies.
A large part of the population does not participate in the life of economies and communities due to insufficient reading skills - it is a huge loss that they do not contribute their potential to our common development. Today, it is important to prepare young people to use changing technology and consciously use the opportunities it offers. This requires appropriate expenditure on the education system, but also the training of teachers whose qualifications should allow this – said Georg Haeusler, Director of the Office of the Commissioner for Culture, pointing to the ideas currently being discussed by the European Commission
in the area of supporting the resilience of European societies to disinformation and building a future in which artificial intelligence helps in the development of individuals and communities. At the European level, we are also faced with an underestimation of the value of reading for the development of broad competences in other areas of education. – he added.
During the talks, the issue of promoting reading also came up several times.
in relation to the quality of the content and books read. The ability to read leads to the development of critical thinking. As the interviewees agreed, these two aspects are closely related. In order to make a conscious choice of reading material, the first step is to have the ability to read in general, i.e. to become a reader. Quality and universality should go hand in hand. In this context, the inclusiveness of book culture should be supported, and hierarchization should be avoided. Reading is a skill that allows for critical thinking and evaluation of content. – added Jonathan Douglas. It is necessary to promote reading and writing skills. Literacy not literature – this is about the ability to absorb and analyze information. Reading is based on the processing of signs, but more importantly – it should enable understanding the content they convey – noted Dr. Joerg Maas.
The Literacy & Democracy conference gathered a wide audience. Several hundred participants took part in four panels organized by the Universal Reading Foundation. The discussions were an opportunity to exchange various experiences from many sectors - business and large companies, state institutions, but also non-governmental organizations. Experts were able to present scientific, social and private perspectives. It was also inspiring to present the Polish perspective on reading in the context of business development, society and security, as well as on a broader scale - on a European scale and in comparison with other countries.
Report from the meeting at Goyki 3 Art Inkubator: https://youtu.be/5Db5BMIFhdg
The entire interview is available at: https://youtu.be/pMiOsZpiAaA
