The Learning and Development Book

Book excerpt: Everyone thinks they know everything about training. Right? We've all gone to school, been trained on the job, and maybe endured the occasional corporate seminar. But if you're a professional in this field, you know that's familiarity, not expertise. Instructional design and implementation are not as easy as they look. You know there's an art to enabling people to truly change their behavior, moving themselves and their organizations toward the right future. That's what inspired The Learning and Development Book. Open the book to any page and you'll find a short chapter that holds one hard-won lesson—the reward of decades implementing instructional design in real-world settings. Why should learning be more like playing? Is the culture of your organization working against you? Should you really measure the effects of your training program? Have you ever thought that learning begins when training ends? Each chapter holds a nugget of wisdom on subjects like these. Whether you're a battle-tested educator or embarking on your first big training job, we hope we can give you tips, tools, big ideas, and (bonus!) a smile.