Learning Never Stops: 20+ Books, Blogs and Podcasts the People Team at UiPath Is Recommending

There’s this well-known saying reminding us that learning never stops. At UiPath we take pride in confirming this theory, as from the day you start working here, you encounter all kinds of learning opportunities. You discover different parts of yourself. 

Our colleagues are learners. They read books, follow different blogs, take courses or listen to podcasts. We even have Slack channels for most of these resources, so people can share what they find with the others.  So, we thought, why not share some of these great things with you? Our plan is to go from team to team and curate all those awesome books, blogs, courses or podcasts and post them here.  For this one, we asked our People Team to join the challenge. Let’s see what they said. 

There are a lot of books out there. Some better than others. Here are some of the good ones that they mentioned. 

The Fearless Organization, by Amy Edmonson. “It showed me the differences between different types of organizations following them across the years. It gave me a better understanding of what psychological safety is and how a company could perform if you nail it down”, says Sonia Damian.

Grit, by Angela Duckworth, was one of their choices. It is all “about how grittiness and stick-to-it-ness are far more important than raw skill, which is mostly overrated”, says Rich Jones. It makes you think about your reactions to failure or wins. Makes you analyze the way you approach a project. Good food for thought. Deserves your attention. 

The Culture Map, by Erin Meyer is another great book. It is a collection of “practical tips and funny stories on how to work effectively in a multicultural environment. I read a lot about multicultural differences before reading this book but this one specifically helped me understand deeper social nuances. I now love working with other cultures even more and this helps me see the world through a different lens”, states Laura Mohora.

Radical Candor, by Kim Malone Scott. To put it simply, it “cracks the nut on people’s fear of giving candid feedback and offers techniques to do so”, says Emily Connery. 

The Black Swan, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. “This one helped me understand how bad we are as a species at predicting the future and how we cannot infer based on empirical observations of the past. How our inability to predict the future actually allows for Black Swans to occur - rare, single, random events that have a tremendous cumulative impact and which we could actually avoid if we only focused more on what we don't yet know and our "anti-libraries", says Livia Theodorescu.

"The HR Value Proposition, by Dave Ulrich is one of the best books I’ve read”, says Abhijeet Srivastava. Going through it, you’ll understand the importance of understanding external business realities and how key stakeholders both inside and outside the company define value. This is how we can create real value from our roles as HR Professionals.

The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. “It builds on the idea that large group of people are collectively smarter than individual experts when it comes to problem-solving, decision making, innovating and predicting”, shares Alina Paun.

Rising Strong by Brené Brown, is another entry, added to the top by Katerina Cerveny. Vulnerability at its best, struggle and the gains it can bring and the courage to get through anything.

Work Rules, by Laszlo Bock gets to the list, being mentioned by Raluca Ene. We all look at Google and are curious about the way they do HR. This book is a collection of best practices for different processes you might consider implementing for your company. 

Your Brain at Work by David Rock, recommended by Maya Camarasu, will help you understand how your brain sorts information, how things get prioritized, organized and acted on.

The 5 dysfunctions of a team by Patrick Lencioni. A book on “what makes and breaks teams and what a team needs in order to be able to deliver high performance. It is a must read”, says Andreea Mihnea.

But books are just one way of keeping up to date with great content. If books are not your cup of tea, here are some podcasts/ blogs/ industry thought leaders you should check. 

“LifeLabs Learning has a great email newsletter with virtual and in-person trainings. And also some good content on their website.” recommends Rich. “They are a true thought leader on strengthening management and improving the employee experience”, adds Emily. 

Rich also recommends the community that Lattice build. You can join it from their website or just subscribe to their newsletter. They have some good insights. 

For all the recruiters out there, Sonia recommends following SourceCon for tips and tricks and sourcing inspiration. You know you can always find something new when it comes to sourcing, so check it out. 

Harvard Business Review was of course mentioned. “It is quite focused on leadership development and I like it as it has research and quality of data” says Maya. She also adds re:Work, by Google to the list as “they have free instruments and best practices already tested at Google and you can easily adapt them.”

If you want to reflect on your current life or find some strategies to cope with change, Alina recommends Brene Brown’s podcast. On the same note, we have Esther Perel with her How’s work? podcast added to the top by Raluca.

Since we talk podcasts, here are others from CIPD or the HR Podcast recommended by Abhijeet.

Looking for some Thought Leaders to follow? Our team has you covered. Simon Sinek, Gary Vaynerchuck, Jordan Peterson or Richard Bandler are just some of the people our colleagues learn from. 

We added here something for everybody. We hope you’ll find something to keep you company while you #stayhome. And don’t forget. Learning never stops. 

See you next time, when we’ll learn from other UiPath teams. Until then, stay safe!