The Learning Alliance: Systems Thinking In Human Resource Development

Learning adds value and improves human performance only when training is viewed and managed as an integral process within a system - not as a discrete program within an isolated department. To facilitate the development of a learning organization, training must become everyone's business. In The Learning Alliance, authors Robert O. Brinkerhoff and Stephen J. Gill show how managers, supervisors, trainees, and training professionals can collaborate to systematically manage the process of learning and behavior change, and consistently deliver the cost-effective results needed to build and sustain an organization's competitive advantage. They provide the guidance and tools necessary to forge and facilitate critical alliances between the employee being trained and the other key players in the learning process. The authors' practical four-phase method shows how to design and implement training as an integrated system strategically linked to business goals, customer needs, continuous improvement, and the total organization system. To help training leaders navigate this complex process, the authors detail how to use the "impact map", an adaptable, easy-to-use graphic tool that identifies all stakeholders who will be involved in the learning process - employees, supervisors, managers, trainers - and clarifies roles to ensure that the right people receive the training and support they need to achieve specified key goals. Through numerous examples, Brinkerhoff and Gill illustrate how trainers and managers can work together to combine and implement systems technology with just-in-time and just-enough learning strategies that produce and sustain measurable, consistently effective results. Theyprovide step-by-step guidance and hands-on tools for implementing each stage of the process - from goal setting to follow-up and maintenance - and include a comprehensive checklist for conducting an organizational training audit and getting started.

Through numerous examples, this guide illustrates how you and your managers can work together to combine and implement systems technology with just-in-time and just-enough-learning strategies.
Step-by-step guidance and hands-on tools help you to:
* Implement each stage of the training process?from goal setting to follow-up and maintenance
* Produce and sustain measurable, consistently effective results
Plus, you'll get a comprehensive checklist for conducting an organizational training audit and getting started. Use this guide to get your organization's systems on track today