Running Training Like a Business: Delivering Unmistakable Value

Rating:
Summary: A Solid Effort!
Review: David van Adelsberg and Edward A. Trolley are experts in developing innovative workplace learning solutions, in other words, training. Their book presents their program, "Running Training Like a Business." This book is enormously detailed, if jargon-heavy and somewhat bureaucratic in its language. It is filled with flow charts, graphs, and other visuals that will appeal to anyone who wants thorough strategies that can improve training programs. We [...] recommend this book to executives who design, oversee, coordinate, or purchase employee training and education programs. One caveat: the reader does get some sense that, with this volume, the authors are also marketing their program to potential clients.


Rating:
Summary: Insightful and invaluable!!
Review: I found this book very insightful, and a MUST READ if you want to develop a competitive enterprise workforce for today's business challenges and marketplace!

Rating:
Summary: A winner and then some!
Review: This book is unique. I found it provocative, informative and actionable. Transforming learning inside companies from a function to a business has long been needed, particularly in today's world where learning is fast becoming a key element to sustainable competitive advantage. This book nails the issues and provides the plan, based on real world experience, for crossing the chasm. I recommend it highly for business people with an interest in extracting value from the money they are spending on developing their people.

Rating:
Summary: A Welcome Guidebook
Review: Training has been viewed as an expense in most organizations, a poor step-child to human resources, at best. It's a cost center in the minds of most executives, a necessary (or is it really?) evil.

With the move toward lean organizations, practically every department is expected to be a profit center instead of a cost burden. "If you can't make a positive difference on our bottom line, we'll out-source you" is the attitude of many executives today. So Running Training Like a Business is a book for the times. Like it or not, if you're in the training field, you'd better be reading this book.

Credibility. Trainers, like many professionals, are wary of all the garbage that poses as valid information. They need to cut through the noise to get the real meat, and they don't have a lot of time to wade through extraneous space-filling material that doesn't contribute to what they need to know. The authors understand. They're senior executives at The Forum Corporation, one of the premier global consulting firms on training and training management.

The authors get right into content. No wasted time here. The writing is concise, supported by graphics where needed. Bullet points at the end of each chapter reinforce what needs to be done to achieve solid accomplishment of objectives. It's a good business approach.

The book is organized into three parts: The Business Case for Transformation, Making the Transformation, and The End of the Beginning. The design is a familiar model to professionals engaged in behavioral change, making the content easier to absorb and apply. Organization change is what this book is all about, and the questionnaires in the back of the book will help the reader assess what needs to be done, progress made, and challenges yet to be overcome.

This book may be a bit difficult, in places, for some trainers. That's understandable; many trainers have not had sufficient exposure to the business side of business. There's plenty of training language to build comfort and a sense of familiarity, enabling readers to find a number of jumping-off points to stay with the theme.

As the author of "Lean & Meaningful," I can say that what van Adelsberg and Trolley have presented is very congruent with what we see in today's corporate culture. The role of training will grow in importance, but it must also grow in producing and measuring bottom-line results.