The Learning and Development Book: Change the way you think about L&D

by Tricia Emerson, Mary Stewart

This book was written for the experienced, time-challenged L&D professionals looking for ways to be more effective. The insights in this book are meant to help when you feel stalled. They are about the gotchas - the hard-won knowledge that comes from skinned knees and bumped heads. They might jump-start your creativity, give you a fresh idea, and remind you of something that worked in the past, or simply change your perspective. In addition to enabling effective learning, from time to time you must articulate the need for it. This book gives you simple ideas and concepts to illustrate these needs and illuminate learning and development efforts for you, your clients, your teams and your company leadership. L&D is simple. Our chapters are written to be short and easy to digest. Each contains just one "nugget of wisdom" from years of learning and development consulting experience. L&D is flexible. Open to any chapter! No need to start at the beginning. Read the table of contents and pick something that interests you. Each chapter is self-contained, so read one or read them all, in any order you like.

Genres: Nonfiction

198 pages, Paperback

First published November 16, 2011

Reviews

[Frieda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book can be read in a couple of hours and wasn't as good as some of the other L&D books I've read for staff trainers.

Best takeaways:
-Using the Socratic Method to keep learners engaged. This involves group discussion on the topics being taught during the training session.

-Rather than call on people during a virtual training, have them introduce themselves in the chat, including an answer to an interesting question that you would like to ask (ie - workshop is about burnout, so ask "After the pandemic, where would you like to vacation in?")

[Matthias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for both people just starting in the domain as well as seasoned professionals

[Becky English · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bite sized and practical- I found it very helpful and full of good reminders.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written by the CEO and other consultants of my company. It was a very quick read, filled with common sense ideas that people often forget when it comes to learning.

Key common sense ideas from this book:
- Learning must be engaging and interesting (whether you are an adult or child, we all are hardwired to have curious minds that enjoy learning that is fun).
- The culture of a company will impact whether or not employees embrace change and learning.
- Learning objectives should be clear, measurable, and mapped to every item included in the training plan.
- Generic training is not training- neither is a Powerpoint presentation.

The lighthearted nature of this book peppered with relevant vignettes and chuckles is demonstrative of the culture of Emerson. No one likes the idea of change when it seems like a drag- we take change personally without taking ourselves too seriously.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and easy to read, but every sentence packs a punch. Essential reading for anyone in the L&D field.