One of the biggest gaps in the learning-and-performance field occurs after the training is done. Learners fail to apply what they’ve learned and their managers fail to support training implementation. Fortunately, the Fort Hill gang writes again. Where their blockbuster book, The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning, laid out a comprehensive process for getting training results, their new book (Getting Your Money’s Worth from Training and Development) provides a call-to-action for training’s most important players. Using the brilliantly diabolical approach of dividing the book in half—one half for learners, the other for managers—Jefferson, Pollock, and Wick provide an energizing action-plan to help organizations maximize training’s impact on job performance.
I’m so impressed with the Fort Hill guys. It seems that they (1) have looked deeply at the training-and-development trade, (2) found an area where time and time again we fail to do what’s right, and (3) written the perfect book to ensure that training maximizes business results. Too often in today’s organizations, training is seen as magic pill that works without alignment and support. In this double-dose of a book, Jefferson, Pollock, and Wick explode that myth, helping both learners and their managers bring potency to the training effort.
The design of the book tells the story itself. Managers read from one cover while learners read from the other cover. The book’s title stays the same—Getting Your Money’s Worth from Training and Development—but the subtitles change for the two audiences (i. e., A Guide to Breakthrough Learning for Managers; A Guide to Breakthrough Learning for Participants.). Only in partnership is training truly effective. The symbolism speaks loudly, but so too does the content, showing how both learners and their managers can work together to ensure that training transfers to on-the-job performance improvement.
The book is written in a conversational style. It speaks directly to the audiences in terms that will resonate. No motherhood and apple pie in the Fort Hill world. It’s all about results, wiifm’s, and tools. The example worksheets in the back of each book (remember it’s two books in one) are worth the cover price.
I recommend this book with the greatest enthusiasm. Companies ought to buy two copies for every training participant. One for the participant and one for his/her manager.
You can click the link below to learn more about the book (and go directly to Amazon to decide whether to purchase it).
