Lies about Learning

By Larry Israelite

Lies About Learning is a frank and entertaining look at where myth and reality diverge in the multi-billion-dollar workplace learning industry. Written by 12 high-level executives from a wide range of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1562864548
• ISBN13: 9781562864545
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: ASTD
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Book I Wish I Had Written

One of my friends, a client and former colleague, Larry Israelite, has written a book that I wish I had written. Lies About Learning: Leading Executives Separate Truth from Fiction In a $100 Billion Industry exposes many of the lies - "conventional wisdom, self-serving rumors, unfounded insinuations" - that learning professionals and executives must interpret from vendors, industry pundits, training conference presentations, and learning marketers as they try to make basic decisions about the strategies and tactics of corporate learning. Lies About Learning features 11 chapters written by experts in the field of training and consulting. Chapter titles include: * Lies about Chief Learning Officers (by Len Sherman) * Lies about Learners (by Murry Christensen) * Lies about the Design of Learning (by Melinda Jackson) * Lies about Consultants and Vendors (by Charlene Zeiberg * Lies about E-Learning (by Elliott Masie) If you're a veteran of the chapter topic, you'll recognize the half-truths, gambits, falsehoods, pronouncements, misleading proclamations, and lies and will have a good laugh. If you're new to training, training management, e-learning technology, or working with training vendors (like my company, Entelechy!), the chapters will provide you with honest, frank insights that could prove valuable. Setting the tone early, Larry writes in the preface, "The road we in the learning profession travel is littered with expensive failed experiments, unfulfilled promises, unachieved goals, and frustrating disappointments." While this sounds like a rather pessimistic view of the training world (and Larry himself would classify himself as a cynic), I believe that the book and the opinions of its contributors begin to chisel away at the mountain of hype and exaggeration that surround corporate learning. Some of this comes from my previous life as a training consumer - Sales Training Manager for a large Fortune 100 company. Before starting my company, I - like Larry and many of you - was on the receiving end of the promises of training vendors whose products and services "virtually guaranteed" to solve world hunger, not to mention [fill in your performance issue: increase sales, reduce turnover, improve customer satisfaction, etc.]. Since starting my training company, Entelechy, 13 years ago, I've competed with other training vendors - and the sometimes unbelievable promises they make to clients. Larry is kind. He states: "Although I don't think that most people deliberately attempt to deceive, I think there is rampant over-optimism about the new products, tools, and technologies that we hear about every single day. When something works in one situation, learning professionals desperately want to believe it will work in all situations. When a success is achieved with one population, success is expected with all populations. When a new product possesses technical capabilities that could lead to a desirable result, trainers accept without ev