Inside the Training Courtroom

Training On Trial: How Workplace Learning Must Reinvent Itself to Remain Relevant

By James D. Kirkpatrick and
Wendy Kayser Kirkpatrick
(AMACOM, 239 pp., $24.95)

Reviewed by Michael Cohen

In Training on Trial by James and Wendy Kirkpatrick, the reader is presented with the idea of viewing his training endeavors as though they were part of a legal case. Throughout the book, the Kirkpatricks use the legal trial metaphor to explain how learning professionals should operate when confronted with challenges.

Early in the book, the authors provide the reader with a guide that addresses the legal metaphor, so readers do not have to have a legal background to read and understand the book. For example, the training professional is the “defendant” who must respond to business stakeholders’ “summons” regarding their training programs and initiatives.

The book is replete with metaphors, stories, tips, and illustrations that are helpful in understanding what the authors are trying to communicate. Plenty of real-world examples are included, and the reader will encounter stories that have taken place at well-known businesses and companies. The authors’ focus on writing a practical book does come at a cost, however. There is very little information in the book about the theory and research associated with training initiatives within organizations. The bulk of the book focuses on how the Kirkpatricks have addressed situations that they have faced while working in the learning and development field.

Training on Trial also pays homage to Donald Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation, and the latter part of the book focuses on how to use a proprietary business model that the Kirkpatricks have established—the Kirkpatrick Business Partnership Model (KBPM). While I found this model to be comprehensive, this book gave little information on alternative models and methods. The book addresses several realistic scenarios that training professionals might find themselves facing as businesses continue to explore the value that training adds to their organization’s bottom line. Training on Trial offers several mental exercises throughout that are intended to prepare training professionals to defend their programs from the criticism that they often receive.

While I found the book’s lack of depth to be frustrating at times, I did like how it focused on the practical application of the KBPM. Training on Trial was also filled with abstract metaphors that often overlapped with one another. Sometimes these metaphors made sense to me, and sometimes they didn’t. I do feel that the book offers some valuable tips and ideas, so I am giving it three cups of coffee.

Michael Cohen is a human resources professional in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area; michaelcohen5@gmail.com.

Comebacks: Powerful Lessons From Leaders Who Endured Setbacks and Recaptured Success on Their Terms

By Andrea Redmond and Patricia Crisafulli

(Jossey-Bass, 216 pp., $27.95)

For those leadership scholars who revel in the occasional True Hollywood Story, Redmond and Crisafulli’s profiles will surely be of some value. The almost 3-D cover image of a steel spring is befitting the life lessons of Hewlett-Packard’s Patricia Dunn and former Ford CEO Jac Nasser, among several others. The stories behind the stories of 10 controversy-embroiled, ousted, and sometimes mistreated top execs are even-handed and presented with a great deal of respect. The authors make a readable case for the values and persistence that prove priceless when the chips are down, and better still, manage to create narratives that successfully balance the inspirational with the pragmatic and savvy.

One Page Talent Management: Eliminating Complexity, Adding Value

By Marc Effron and Miriam Ort

(Harvard Business Press, 170 pp., $29.95)

This book is about as compact of a tome on talent management as you’ll find these days. This is of course by design, as Effron and Ort have taken only the best ideas and recommendations for developing talent management tools, models, and processes that don’t take up an entire room, only to prove ineffective, irrelevant to the business, or too daunting for employees to grasp. The authors forgo the workbook format one might expect, in favor of seven succinct chapters covering performance management, talent reviews and succession planning, and engagement surveys. What may for some be a welcome, to-the-point set of guidelines, could appear to others as a bit over-simplified. But with the authors’ extensive experience in developing proven talent, this book is worth more than a one-page look.

The Stress Effect: Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decisions

By Henry L. Thompson

(Jossey-Bass, 286 pp., $26.95)

According to this book, stress is an extremely powerful x-factor that can break an otherwise good leader’s stride. Furthermore, much of what we think we know about the right way to manage and contain stress when it counts, is off-base. So what can leaders, coaches, or succession planners do to navigate the troubled waters or prevent them in the first place? Thompson offers a full cache of power techniques for better decision making, covering everything from neurology and cognitive functioning to sleep and nutrition. In the author’s view, decisions are more than mere choices; they encompass the “core essence” of leadership. Thompson is an organizational psycologist and consultant as well as the author of Jung’s Function-Attitudes Explained and The Communication Wheel.