You know it in your gut—training and development is valuable and worthwhile. But as a trainer, you need to prove this fact over and over to clients focused on bottom-line results. While most training evaluation methods are too elaborate, too complex, too costly, too difficult to explain, or worse, produce data that nobody believes, Telling Training's Story offers a simple, compelling way of evaluating training's impact: The Success Case Method (SCM).
Based on careful analysis of participants' first-person accounts of their experiences in a training initiative, SCM doesn't just measure the impact of training, but pinpoints the very factors that make or break training success. Filled with examples, illustrations, tools, and checklists, Telling Training's Story not only shares the power of the Success Case Method to evaluate training, it also offers practical step-by-step guidelines for increasing the ROI of future learning and performance initiatives.
• Offers a simple, straightforward yet robust and convincing method for demonstrating the effectiveness of training
• A detailed how-to manual, filled with tools, examples, checklists, and step-by-step advice
What all trainers know in their gut--that training and development is valuable and worthwhile--is something that needs to be proven over and over to clients focused on bottom-line results. As a result, there have been many books and articles about evaluating training, but most of the methods they describe are too elaborate, too complex, too costly, too difficult to explain--or worse, produce data nobody believes.
In Telling Training's Story, Story Robert Brinkerhoff offers a simple, compelling way of evaluating training's impact: The Success Case Method (SCM). Based on careful analysis of participants' first-person accounts of their experiences in a training initiative, SCM has been proven robust enough to withstand scrutiny from both a research and a business perspective, and will not choke real world practitioners and their clients with cumbersome methods and arcane statistical gyrations. And SCM does not just measure and document the impact of training, it uncovers and pinpoints the factors that make or break training success. Armed with this information, training leaders and their clients can dramatically increase the ROI of future learning and performance initiatives.
Filled with examples, illustrations, tools, and checklists, Telling Training’s Story not only shares the power of the Success Case Method to evaluate training, it also offers practical step-by-step guidelines for creating SCM projects and ensuring meaningful results.
You know it in your gut—training and development is valuable and worthwhile. But as a trainer, you need to prove this fact over and over to clients focused on bottom-line results. While most training evaluation methods are too elaborate, too complex, too costly, too difficult to explain, or worse, produce data that nobody believes, Telling Training's Story offers a simple, compelling way of evaluating training's impact: The Success Case Method (SCM).
Based on careful analysis of participants' first-person accounts of their experiences in a training initiative, SCM doesn't just measure the impact of training, but pinpoints the very factors that make or break training success. Filled with examples, illustrations, tools, and checklists, Telling Training's Story not only shares the power of the Success Case Method to evaluate training, it also offers practical step-by-step guidelines for increasing the ROI of future learning and performance initiatives.
• Offers a simple, straightforward yet robust and convincing method for demonstrating the effectiveness of training
• A detailed how-to manual, filled with tools, examples, checklists, and step-by-step advice
What all trainers know in their gut--that training and development is valuable and worthwhile--is something that needs to be proven over and over to clients focused on bottom-line results. As a result, there have been many books and articles about evaluating training, but most of the methods they describe are too elaborate, too complex, too costly, too difficult to explain--or worse, produce data nobody believes.
In Telling Training's Story, Story Robert Brinkerhoff offers a simple, compelling way of evaluating training's impact: The Success Case Method (SCM). Based on careful analysis of participants' first-person accounts of their experiences in a training initiative, SCM has been proven robust enough to withstand scrutiny from both a research and a business perspective, and will not choke real world practitioners and their clients with cumbersome methods and arcane statistical gyrations. And SCM does not just measure and document the impact of training, it uncovers and pinpoints the factors that make or break training success. Armed with this information, training leaders and their clients can dramatically increase the ROI of future learning and performance initiatives.
Filled with examples, illustrations, tools, and checklists, Telling Training’s Story not only shares the power of the Success Case Method to evaluate training, it also offers practical step-by-step guidelines for creating SCM projects and ensuring meaningful results.
No messy statistics, no complicated formulae, no squishy metrics. Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method is a robust and elegant approach to delivering substantive and believable evaluation data about the measurable impact of training and HR interventions.”
—Marguerite Foxon, PhD, Principal Performance Technologist, Motorola
"I like the approach that Brinkerhoff has used.... You, the reader will be able to adapt his solutions to your own."
—Donald L. Kirkpatrick, PhD, author of Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels
"The Success Case method is the most relevant and compelling way to put educational results in the right light, and reach the results you're after.”
—Louise Korver-Swanson, Senior Vice President, Executive Development, Bank of America
"This book is a ‘must' for anyone who is serious about learning solutions and the results they can produce. The Success Case Method is simple and practical while yielding compelling and reliable information on training results."
—Dana Gaines Robinson, coauthor of Performance Consulting: Moving Beyond Training and Strategic Business Partner: Aligning People Strategies with Business Goals
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part 1
Chapter One Getting to the Heart of Training Impact
Can We “Prove” Training Impact?
Chapter Two How the Success Case Method Works: Two Basic Steps
Training Evaluation Realities
The Success Case Method: Step by Step
Chapter Three Success Case Method Strategy—Building Organizational Learning Capacity
The Determinants of Training Impact
Learning Alone Is Insufficient
Risks of the Common Training Evaluation Strategy
An Evaluation Strategy for Building Organizational
Learning Competence A Fundamental Shift in Focus
Redefining the Evaluation Process
Implementing the Strategy to Drive Change
Chapter Four Focusing and Planning a Success Case Method Study
1. Clarifying the Purpose of the SCM Study
2. Meet with and Discuss the Study with Key Stakeholders
3. Define the Program That Is to Be Studied
4. Define the Population of Participants to Be Studied, and Identify Any Needed Sampling Parameters
5. How Soon After the Training to Conduct the Survey
6. Establishing a Schedule for the Study
7. Specify and Confirm the Resources Available for the Study
8. Finalize the Success Case Strategy
Chapter Five Constructing a Simple Training Impact Model
Elements of the Impact Model
Constructing an Impact Model
Chapter Six Fishing for Success Conducting the SCM Survey
Defining the Survey Step
Conducting the SCM Survey
Chapter Seven Sorting the “Catch”—Analyzing Survey Results
Scoring and Sorting the Survey Response
Choosing Interviewee Candidates
Analyzing Data to Estimate Nature and Scope of Impact
Chapter Eight Digging Out and Telling the Stories— the SCM Interviews
Resolving Causal Questions
The SCM Interview Structure
Preparing for the Interviews
Chapter Nine Drawing Compelling Conclusions
The Eight Major SCM Conclusions
Conclusion Type One: What, If Any, Impact Was Achieved?
Conclusion Type Two: How Widespread Is Success?
Summary of Final Conclusions
Conclusion Type Three: Did the Training Work Better in Some Parts of the Organization, or with Some Types of Participants, Better than Others?
Conclusion Type Four: Were Some Parts of the Training More Successfully Applied than Others?
Conclusion Type 5: What Systemic Factors Were Associated with Success and a Lack of Success?
Conclusion Type Six: What Is the Value of Outcomes Achieved?
Conclusion Type Seven: What Is the Unrealized Value of the Training?
Conclusion Type Eight: How Do the Benefits of the Training Compare with the Costs?
Part 2
Chapter Ten Sales Training at Grundfos
The Setting
Purposes of the SCM Study
Organizing the Study
Challenges and Constraints
The SCM Chronology
The Impact Model
Survey
Actions After the SCM Study
Chapter Eleven Service Technician Training at the Compaq Computer Corporation
Other Important Factors
Preparing for the Evaluation
Evaluation Results
The Rest of the Story
Chapter Twelve Coaching and Training at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
The Business Scenario
The Training Intervention
The Evaluation Purpose
SCM Study Procedures
Survey Results
Interview Results
Recommendations Challenges and Lessons Learned
Chapter Thirteen Executive Development at Allstate Insurance
Evaluation Purposes
The Evaluation Process
Challenges and Constraints
Results
Conclusions
Recommendations
Lessons Learned
References
Success Case Method Assistance and Resources
Index
About the Author
About Berrett-Koehler Publishers
