How People Learn

Nick Shackleton-Jones

Kogan Page, 312 pp., $41.99

When designing training, L&D professionals want to create something that makes a difference in an employee's skills and development. This book will give you a new way to think about learning by applying insights from neuroscience, human behavior, and artificial intelligence. Shackleton-Joneslays out his 5Di model and demonstrates how to define, design, and deploy training into existing workflows, allowing it to work both for and with employees. Building off the AI component, the author explores how to use simulations to replicate real-world situations. He also incorporates new material for learning in an evolving hybrid work environment.

The Search for Meaning at Work

Steve Van Valin

Rowman & Littlefield, 304 pp., $32

Companies struggle to keep their employees engaged, leading to higher turnover rates. Business leaders aren't prepared to deliver a work experience that gives employees meaning and purpose at their organizations. Van Valin, an organizational culture consultant and former QVC executive, provides a set of tools to solve those talent problems. He argues that without meaning, there is no engagement, which is why the author's model is based on 11 "amplifiers of meaning," which identify and describe the core purpose that gives work meaning. Van Valin offers specific steps leaders can take to help employees find their purpose within an organization.