Business · Book club
The Memo book club questions
Here are 12 book club questions for The Memo by Minda Harts, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
The Memo is Minda Harts's career guide written specifically for women of color navigating professional environments that were not built with them in mind.
Minda Harts · 2019 · 3h 45m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 12 questions
- 1.
Harts argues that much career advice is not actually universal, just written from a specific perspective. What career advice have you received that didn't quite fit your situation?
- 2.
What's the difference between a mentor and a sponsor in your own professional network? Do you have both?
- 3.
How have unspoken norms in your workplace shaped who gets credit and who gets overlooked?
- 4.
Harts is direct about the reality of structural bias. How do you balance advocating for yourself within a system while also pushing for that system to change?
- 5.
Have you ever withheld an opinion or tempered your communication style because of how you thought it would be received? What drove that calculation?
- 6.
What would it mean to build a professional network strategically rather than accidentally? What gaps do you notice in your own network right now?
- 7.
Harts talks about knowing when to leave an organization. What signals would tell you that a workplace was not going to change in the ways you need it to?
- 8.
How does visibility function in your workplace? Whose work gets seen and credited, and whose gets absorbed without attribution?
- 9.
If you haven't negotiated salary or title before, what's been the real reason? If you have, how did you prepare?
- 10.
The book argues that sponsorship requires political capital being spent on someone. What would it take for you to be the kind of colleague who spends that capital on others?
- 11.
How does advice from someone with a different background than yours land differently? What do you do with advice that doesn't quite fit?
- 12.
Harts writes for women of color but the dynamics she describes appear more broadly. Where have you seen the same patterns in different contexts?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for The Memo?
Here are 12 book club questions for The Memo by Minda Harts, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on workplace equity, career advancement, race and gender.
How long should a book club discussion of The Memo last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in The Memo?
Workplace equity, Career advancement, Race and gender, Professional development, Advocacy. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like The Memo or questions for other book club picks.
