Get Started Now. Take Action.

Staying ahead of change in the world, your organization, and your profession requires action. You learned a lot to launch your organization’s talent development effort. As you position it for the future, what you need to know grows exponentially.

As futurist Ray Kurzweil once said, “If I take 30 steps linearly, I get to 30. If I take 30 steps exponentially, I get to a billion.” How do you prepare for exponential growth?

In ATD’s Action Guide to Talent Development: A Practical Approach to Building Organizational Success, industry expert and bestselling author Elaine Biech lays out the steps you can take. The companion volume to ATD’s Foundations of Talent Development: Launching, Leveraging, and Leading Your Organization’s TD Effort, this book follows an eight-step framework for defining your organization’s learning foundation through preparing for the future. You are your organization’s trusted adviser, and Biech offers practical questions, organizational assessments, and tips for each step you must guide your organization through. She also presents the newest thinking from university educators and researchers that organizational experts have relied on for years as well as from industry practitioners and luminaries in leadership and development.

Open this book to any page. Jump in where you think it will be most beneficial to you or your organization. Whether you work inside a company or as an external consultant, whether you work for a large organization or a small one, whether you are launching your first talent development effort or fine-tuning a function that’s been in action for decades, you will find valuable concepts, designs, and ideas. Get started now. Take action.

Table of Contents:

I. Identify and Clarify the Organization’s Learning Foundation1. Your Organization’s Learning Culture2. Leaders Champion Learning3. Employees Value Lifelong Learning4. Everyone has a Learning Mindset5. Clarifying Your Organization’s Readiness

II. Develop a Talent Development Strategy6. Build a Business Case for Learning7. Enhance Your Organizational and Industry Savvy8. Expand Talent Development’s Role9. Partner With Business to Become Trusted Advisers

III. Create an Operating Plan:10. Align TD to the Organization’s Needs11. Manage the TD Function Like a Business12. Balance Services and Budget13. Leverage Technology for Learning

IV. Reinforce an Organizational Talent Development Mindset14. Evolving Your Organization’s Learning Culture15. How Your Organization Learns to Perform16. Managers Develop Their Employees17. Employees are Accountable for Their Development18. Talent Development Professionals Are Consultants

V. Design and Deliver Learning19. Stay on the Cutting Edge of Contemporary Design and Delivery20. Select the Most Effective Formal Learning21. Support Learning from Others22. Encourage Learning On-the-Job23. Explore Other Services Provided by TD Professionals

VI. Fortify the Learning24. Empower Employees to Learn25. Enable Social Learning26. Coach Managers27. Foster Persistent Self-Learning28. Develop Your TD Staff

VII. Define and Measure the Impact29. Demonstrate Organizational Impact of TD30. Identify Evaluation Methods31. Start a Meaningful Evaluation Process32. Plan for the Future of Evaluation

VIII. Prepare for the Future33. The Workplace of the Future34. The Workforce of the Future35. Talent Development Future Trends36. Guiding Your Organization’s Future

Appendix A. Worksheets and ChecklistsAppendix B Contributor Bios

ReferencesAuthor BioIndex