5 Good Books for Trainers

It may feel like the world has been on pause since March, but if you want to be the best at your craft, you need to find ways to keep developing yourself.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve had the good fortune to be able to speak with a number of authors who have written books on various aspects of training and development.

In this age of COVID, with conferences and training events either being cancelled or going virtual, you may be looking for other ways to hone your craft, and one of these books may be just what you need.

Troubleshooting for Trainers (Sophie Oberstein)

This book hits the shelves on October 6, 2020, but you can pre-order Troubleshooting for Trainers. If you’ve ever simply wanted a quick problem-solving guide to common issues such as what to do when you lack resources or if you’re wondering how to address the fact that people aren’t signing up or showing up for your courses, this could be a handy resource for your bookshelf.

Instructional Story Design (Rance Greene)

Stories can be extremely powerful learning tools, but not everyone has the natural ability to craft a tight story and tell it well. Rance Greene combines his theater background with his passion for learning in helping readers develop and tell a better story during training programs.

Millennials, Goldfish and Other Training Misconceptions (Clark Quinn)

With Halloween around the corner, are you ready for a spooky story? This book is full of myths and legends that for some reason continue to be told in training programs. If we want credibility in our field, it’s important that we refrain from perpetuating learning myths that have no basis in fact.

A Trainer’s Guide to PowerPoint (Mike Parkinson)

Mike is one of the only people in the world to have had Microsoft bestow upon him the title “Microsoft PowerPoint MVP”. This book offers simple ideas for how training professionals can make the most out of each PowerPoint deck they develop. (Hint: Before you even open up PowerPoint, you ought to sketch an outline of your training program.)

If you have 13 minutes before your next meeting and you’d like to hear Mike and I discuss a Trainer’s Approach to Effective PowerPoint.

E-Learning Department of One (Emily Wood)

So many of us are on our own when it comes to developing elearning. Whether you’re an independent contractor or you are simply the only person at your office who knows how to create elearning, this book offers you a series of thoughts on how to overcome common development and design challenges.

Have you read a good book on training lately? Feel free to put it in the comments and let’s see how big we can grow this list!

Brian Washburn

Brian has over 25 years of experience in Learning & Development including the last 7 as CEO of Endurance Learning.

Brian is always available to chat about learning & development and to talk about whether Endurance Learning can be your training team’s “extra set of hands”.

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