Getting Your Money’s Worth

This book fills a need for trainers, participants, and managers by providing a practical guide on how to get the most from a learning and development program. Getting Your Money’s Worth is filled with proven tools, guidelines, and processes that help ensure the transfer and application of new learning to improve on-the-job performance. The book explains how to create an environment that supports the participant’s successful transition from program learning to producing valuable results. The book provides a formula for success that will add value to virtually any learning and development initiative. » Buy Now

Endorsements

Indispensable. Essential. Not-to-be-without. Getting Your Money’s Worth from Training & Development is the single best resource available for assuring that learners, and their managers, will get the highest possible return on their training investments. Andy Jefferson, Roy Pollock, and Cal Wick have written a clear, concise, and evidence-based guide on how individuals can immediately put new knowledge and skills to work and how organizations can provide the essential support to sustain improvement. This guide should be a part of every training program from here on out.

- Jim Kouzes
Award-winning coauthor of the bestselling The Leadership Challenge

Human capital is the most important asset in most organizations. Developing employee capability is key to any human resource strategy. It has been well documented that the success of a development program is highly dependent on how participants and their managers prepare for the event and follow through after the event. This easy-to-use guide provides tips and tools that can be utilized to ensure maximum return on your organization’s investment. An easy read. Well worth the time. If you implement a third of the ideas in this guide, you will be ahead of the game.

- Larry Lenox
Senior Manager, Talent Development, Oracle Corporation

Getting Your Money’s Worth is a treasure chest full of practical tools that are well-grounded in the authors’ research and experience. I strongly recommend Getting Your Money’s Worth because it recognizes that in order to contribute to sustained organizational improvement, training needs to occur in a much larger context that provides clearly defined business and individual outcomes, well-aligned organizational systems, supportive leadership and culture, and mechanisms for measuring, communicating, and learning from results.

- Kristen J. Bell
Vice President, Research & Development, Global Client Services, BST, Inc.

Getting Your Money’s Worth from Training & Development is a worthy and practical contribution to the growing repository of tools and methods for increasing the effectiveness of employee learning and development.  The book derives from the common-sense and research-proven notion that without manager engagement and support, training will almost always fail to drive improved employee performance. Anyone interested in improving the return on learning and development investments would do well to consider using the concepts, methods, and tools contained in this valuable resource.

- Robert O. Brinkerhoff,  Ed.D.
Author of High Impact Learning and creator of the Success Case Evaluation Method®

One of the biggest gaps in the learning-and-performance field occurs after the training is done. Too often, 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.

- Will Thalheimer, PhD,
President, Work-Learning Research, Inc.

Jefferson, Pollock, and Wick have created an inspired recipe for improving both human connection to learning and business ROI. Getting Your Money’s Worth is full of innovative, actionable insights and I am grateful.

- Mickey Connolly
Co-author of The Communication Catalyst and CEO, Conversant

Development today is all about engaging learners to acquire and apply skills and knowledge to achieve business results. Managers play a critical role in ensuring that the learners understand why the training is important for the individual and for the organization. Managers need to support any preparation in advance of the program and, perhaps most importantly, partner with the learner on what steps will be taken to transfer the learning into action after the development experience.  Research has shown active management engagement increases the transfer and application and having a quick “how-to” guide to aid managers with their key role is invaluable.

Getting Your Money’s Worth from Training & Development gives both the learner and the manager a straightforward and easy-to-use guide with practical tools to help them throughout the training experience. It is chock-full of great tools and templates which can be immediately applied by learners and managers alike. It builds on the solid foundation of the six disciplines which provide a comprehensive framework for ensuring a training solution delivers results.

The beauty of this latest book design allows the participant and the manager to see each other’s perspective through the preparation and follow-through phases. Like a “hand-in-glove,” the two sections of the book work together to maximize the level of learning and the results achieved. It is truly a breakthrough guide that will yield breakthrough learning and results.  It is a must read for anyone that wants to insure that a development experience leads to tangible results.

- Mike Girone
Director, Enterprise Leadership Development, Agilent Technologies

As learning professionals, we know that turning learning into business impact takes place mostly outside of the classroom. We also know that understanding firstly “WHY?” and then “HOW?” to make this happen makes the difference between successful business improvement and a lost opportunity.

Getting Your Money’s Worth From Training & Development provides an innovative approach to not only convincingly explain the “What’s In It For Me” factor but, critically, to also providing useful tools, techniques, and worksheets that help structure learning goals and conversations.

It is a fabulous resource, highly relevant to both structure your own personal learning and to understand your role as a line manager in turning your team’s learning into impact. It also provides a clear framework for HR professionals to use to enhance the bottom-line impact of a learning strategy.

- Corrine Williams
Senior Manager, Management and Professional Development, Standard Chartered Bank

Finally! Practical tools for getting real business results from training.

Business leaders are accountable for allocating funds to improve business performance. But when it comes to training dollars, leaders question if they can really leverage these costs. Is training just something done away from the job, out of their control, and is over when the event ends? Getting Your Money’s Worth candidly answers these questions. Business leaders are accountable for getting value from training dollars, and their targeted involvement will exponentially affect the business results achieved through the learning process. This book not only holds leaders accountable, but also provides practical information and tools to use each step of the way.

I found the format clever and intuitive. Half the book is for managers, and it issues a strong call for managers to take responsibility for learning’s value. Flip the book over and you have targeted guidance for participants of training, helping them to truly own the outcomes of their learning. Both sections contain shaded text boxes throughout, with background information such as research findings and FAQs, making it easy to dig into details if you want, or skip over the nonessentials without losing continuity. The font sizes are easy on the eyes, pages stay open like a workbook, and the content has a straightforward flow.

In the manager section, the authors remind us that accountability for learning investments isn’t new work for managers. They’re already accountable for getting results through people – they just might not be getting the results they need. The book suggests a three-stage approach to leveraging training:  Be More Up-Front, Be More Engaged, and Be More Results-Driven. After reading this section, I believe managers will have the process and tools to deepen their expectations and involvement in learning initiatives. They’ll also have the confidence to hold meaningful conversations with learners about driving business value.

The participant portion of the book jumpstarts learner accountability with this statement: “Whenever you attend a training program, performance expectations go up.” The authors present three keys for getting training value:  Get Ready, Get Engaged, and Get Results. Here, the participant learns there’s much more to do than just showing up for a training event. In fact, they will personally perform better and be more engaged by following the recommended process. After reading the participant portion, I had a much broader view of the opportunities for personal growth from learning events. The worksheets are concise and help keep the process propelling forward.

This is not a book to keep on a shelf – you’ll find yourself marking up the worksheets, bending pages, having “aha!” moments, and (most importantly) taking action. The book provides a link and password to a website for premium content. I just checked it out and found a good selection of job aids and sample worksheets, as well as case studies and additional content.

The authors of Getting Your Money’s Worth are true advocates of getting business results from learning. As a business leader responsible for key learning initiatives, I will be implementing the practical advice and tools provided in this book to drive value for our organization. My next step is to get this book into the hands of the people who matter most – the managers and learning participants who deliver our business results.

- Diane Hinton
Governing Board Leader, Plastipak Academy, Plastipak Packaging, Inc.

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