Other Useful Books

Books on Training and Consulting Skills Books on Personal Effectiveness Books on Leading Change During Turbulent Times

I'd like to recommend some additional books for purchase, which I have found to be useful references for trainers in today’s world. Some are recent; others are timeless classics. I welcome viewer’s recommendations on books which you have found to be useful! Some of these books are published by ASTD; you can get substantial savings by becoming an ASTD member.

Books on Training and Consulting Skills

Biech, Elaine.  (1999). The Business of Consulting--The Basics and Beyond.
San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass, Pfeiffer.  An excellent introductory guide on how to set up and run an effective consulting business.  A great tool for independent contractors, with useful insights for internal practitioners as well.  An instant best seller!

Bellman, Geoffrey M.  (1993). Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge.
San Francisco:  Berrett-Koehler Publishers.  An excellent guide on how to influence colleagues, coworkers, and managers when you are not the boss.  A best seller!

Block, P. (1999). Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used.
San Diego: Learning Concepts. This classic on consulting provides a humorous look on how to establish effective consulting relationships and set up mutual expectations to ensure that any projects you take on are likely to succeed.

Craig, R.L. Ed. (1996) The ASTD Training and Development Handbook: A Guide to Human Resource Development. (4th edition.)
New York: McGraw Hill. An excellent reference book, consisting of recent articles on the training and development function, program design and development, media and methods, training applications, and resources.

Hall, Brandon.  (1997).  Web-Based Training Cookbook.
New York:  John Wiley & Sons.  A key to successful training is taking advantage of web-based training opportunities.  This helpful paperback guide introduces you to the basics and provides direction in how to set up a web-based training program.  It includes a sample proposal, criteria for evaluating WBT programs, and issues to consider when developing WBT.

Henning, Joel. (1997). The Future of Staff Groups. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This helpful book is a survival manual for all those who fall under the label of being overhead cost.

Phillips, J.J., and Holton, E.F., III, editors (1995). In Action: Conducting Needs Assessment. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development. Provides helpful real-life case studies that illustrate different approaches to needs assessment. Part of ASTD’s In Action series.

Phillips, J.J. (1999) HRD Trends Worldwide: Shared Solutions to Compete in a Global Economy.
Houston, Texas: Gulf Publishing. Provides an overview of 16 HRD trends which are having a significant impact on organizations and identifies ways to address these trends.

Phillips, J.J. (1997) Return on Investment in Training and Performance Improvement Programs.
Birmingham, Alabama: PRO Press. Provides a step by step procedure to measure and ensure that your HRD programs are getting a worthwhile return on investment. Excellent for building the credibility of your training or performance improvement function.

Pike, Robert, and Dave Arch.  (1997).  Dealing With Difficult Participants.
San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.  In this paperback, the world famous trainer Bob Pike and his colleagues provide many useful tips for managing challenging participants, such as the preoccupied, the socializer, the bored, the domineering, the skeptic.  Don't let difficult participants take over and ruin your training.

Robinson, D.G., and Robinson, J.C. (1996). Performance Consulting: Moving Beyond Training.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. This book provides helpful guidance on how to change from trainer to performance consultant--how to avoid recommending training when it is not the right or only solution and how to ensure that any human resource intervention you recommend has a lasting effect on organizational performance.

Rothwell, W. J. (1996). ASTD Models for Human Performance Improvement: Roles, Competencies and Outputs.
Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development. This paperback book provides a useful summary of key competencies needed to be a successful performance consultant.

Zemke, R., and Kramlinger, T. (1989). Figuring Things Out: A Trainer’s Guide to Needs and Task Analysis.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. A timeless classic which helps you conduct an effective task analysis in order to provide useful training.

Books on Personal Effectiveness

Balling, C.S. (1997). Fit to Train: How to Succeed at Training Delivery Without Really Tiring. Minneapolis: Lakewood Publishing. This fun-to-read book provides helpful tips on maintaining your resilience, health, and sanity despite the pressures of your job.

Covey, S.R. (1990). The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change.
New York: Fireside Books, Simon & Schuster. A classic which provides helpful stories and guidance on how to manage yourself and align your life with your own values.

Covey, S.R., A.R. Merrill and R.R. Merrill. (1996).  First Things First:   To Live, To Love, To Learn, To Leave a Legacy.  Paperback.
New York:  Simon and Schuster.  A clasic which provides helpful stories and guidance to ensure that you take a proactive approach to accomplish what's really important in your life rather than constantly fight fires and treat life as a continuous emergency.

Fisher, Robert and W. Ury.  (1991).  Getting to Yes:  Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.
New York:  Penguin Books.  This classic paperback will help you become a better negotiator as you meet with clients, discuss expectations, and negotiate agreements.  The process you learn helps to produce fair and lasting agreements in an efficient and amicable way.

Fritz, R. (1989). The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life.
New York: Fawcett Columbine. This paperback book helped to change the way I viewed life. Gets you to approach your life as a creative work that you shape in order to achieve the results you want.

Ury, William. (1993). Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way From Confrontation to Cooperation.
New York: Bantam Books. This paperback book takes the latest learnings on how to influence people constructively, building on Fisher and Ury's ground-breaking book, Getting to Yes. Very readable and useful information to increase your effectiveness in negotiating with challenging people.

Books on Leading Change During Turbulent Times

Bridges, William. (1991). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. This thoughtful paperback book, filled with useful checklists, provides guidance on tactics to lead people through organizational transitions--the process people go through to come to terms with a new situation. It identifies 3 phases: letting go, the neutral zone, beginning.

Conner, Daryl R. (1992) Managing at the Speed of Change.
New York: Villard Books. Dr. Conner, a clinical psychologist with many years’ experience in consulting to organizations about change, gives a clear overview of key concepts in managing change. This book explains the importance of resilience, and provides clues to increase your resilience.

Johnson, Spencer. (1998) Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life.
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. This book describes a parable about change. This easy-to-read book provides a springboard for thinking about change. It can be used individually or with groups to help get people who are stuck to take constructive action.

Kouzes, James M. and Barry Z. Posner. (1996) The Leadership Challenge.
This outstanding, readable book presents 10 researched leadership practices that can be learned and utilized to lead through any challenge.

Kouzes, James M. and Barry Z. Posner. (1997) Leadership Practices Inventory: Participant's Workbook and Self Assessment.
This inventory measures the 10 leadership practices identified in the ground-breaking book, The Leadership Challenge.

Kouzes, James M. and Barry Z. Posner. (1997) Leadership Practices Inventory (Lpi) Facilitator's Guide: Lpi-Facilitator's Guide and Scoring Software.
Enables HRD practitioners to lead groups based on the Lpi, which measures the 10 leadership practices identified in the ground-breaking book. The Leadership Challenge.

Marks, Mitchell Lee & Philip H. Mirvis. (1994) From Turmoil to Triumph: New Life After Mergers, Acquisitions, and Downsizing.
New York: Lexington Books. If your company is undergoing a merger or acquisition, this book provides helpful strategies on creating successful organizational combinations. It also provides tips on coping with downsizing.

Marks, Mitchell Lee. (1998) Joining Forces: Making One Plus One Equal Three in Mergers, Acquisitions, and Alliances.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. For companies undergoing mergers or acquisitions, this book provides guidelines on steps to take to ensure success throughout the merger process.

Scott, Cynthia .D. and D.T. Jaffe. (1995) Managing Change at Work: Leading People Through Organizational Transitions.
Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications, Inc. This paperback book is part of Crisp’s 50 minute series. This self-study is a quick read with useful tips.