Telling Ain't Training, 2nd edition: Updated, Expanded, Enhanced Paperback – Enhanced, June 1, 2011

As a student pursuing an advanced degree in training and development, I make it a point to put my hands on as many training books as possible. In doing so, I often find that I pick up books that are dry on delivery and could probably be summarized in far fewer pages than what they are worth. Fortunately, Telling Ain't Training is not one of those books. Despite the fact that some of the more useful tools can be hidden in content and the authors' stance on learning styles are a bit controversial at best, it is in my opinion that this book can really help training professionals to develop solid training strategies which help learners, make training more interesting, and help save companies time and money.Good:-Relevance and examples-Often times training books ramble on about practices with weak hypothetical situations or none at all. Sometimes to connect the material to the real life, the author must lead the way. This book does an excellent job connecting the ideas to real-life situations.-Best practice framework-This book is socked full of different frameworks to utilize when designing training, adopting online training, etc. These are valuable tools for trainers to bookmark and come back to later (*hint* I recommend readers bring some kind of ID tabs to help bookmark especially useful segments which can be tough to find later on).-Tools-I am not the most creative person in the world when it comes to designing training ideas, but this book introduces some solid ideas. I actually used some of the extra blank pages to record other awesome ideas I have run into.-Up-to-date-Because this is one of the most recent releases for a training book, it is naturally very up to date. There is nothing more painful than reading about video cassette tapes and overhead projectors...Sketchy:-The authors take a firm stand against keeping various learning styles into consideration. While they do advocate the use of various forms of presentation, it is not to accommodate learners with these styles. To be honest, this is the only part of the book where I stopped and said "Hmmm, I don't know about that..." My advice to the authors-drop it! That is such a small and insignificant part of your text. Don't risk hurting your credibility.-This is not a huge issue, but it is easy to lose some of the valuable stuff within the content. Again, I recommend that the readers come armed with sticky book marks they can label with. Though it could hike up the cost of the book, perhaps the authors could provide build-in tabs to mark these sections in future versions.So is it worth it to buy? While I have accumulated many different books about training, this is one I am keeping by my side through thick and thin. It is actually fun to read and the authors clearly practice what they preach. I had a hard time putting the thing down.

For those of you in the training industry (or those contemplating becoming a trainer) READ THIS BOOK! It contains many important examples and instruction on how to become a more effective trainer. I just finished reading this book for the third time, and it seems to get better every time I read it!Post-training evaluations tell us a bit about our training delivery, but these do not always reflect our effectiveness in the training; in many cases, we are training people that know very little about the subject we are training about. So often times, our evaluations reflect how the training attendees "liked" our training; not necessarily how much they learned about our subject matter.The most important lessons I learned from this book were:1) Making certain that your training will improve workplace performance. This is a key to ensuring that your customers invite you back for future training sessions. If your trainees are able to "hit the road running" right after the training, your value as a trainer will be magnified many, many times...2) Using the five-step model to retrofit existing training sessions - how to make your existing training program even more effective.3) Repetition Techniques - how to improve your training for better retention.4) How to create effective training "tests" - I've always struggled with the testing portion of the training and this chapter is key to providing the trainees with feedback on what they are learning.5) A table listing the different types of training tools with the advantages and disadvantages of each type.

As a subject matter expert developing online training, I didn’t know enough about what makes training good to do it, right. A college buddy who spent a career in instructional design recommended this book, and I couldn’t be more grateful. It stepped me through everything I needed to know to create a solid training plan and accompanying material. My friend reviewed and tweaked so I knew I was on target, and I’m ready to market and sell the training. I highly recommend this book.

While I can not say I necessarily enjoy sitting in class or at home reading a text book, I had very little problems reading through this entire book. The conversational language, and easy-to-understand chapters make the theories contained within the chapters, well, easy to understand. If attempting to learn instructional design, this book is probably your best bet.

Product was as described

As a non-profit professional, I've attended several workshops on training design. This book took all the trainings and made them make sense. I read the first 3 chapters before my next workshop in community, and the information made all the difference in the world. My training was very different. I used the tools and techniques I'd learned from the other workshops,, but after reading only a few chapters of this book, I knew how, why, and when to use the tools. The session was much more lively and the group walked away remembering the core principles of the session, and are currently changing their performance in their organizations! It doesn't get much better than that; I can't wait to finish the book!

I bought this book for a master’s course, and it is awesome! Such a great reference for anyone who teaches adults anything. I highly recommend as it is an easy read and very engaging.