L&d's Playbook for the Digital Age - by Brandon Carson (Paperback)

About the Book

In L&D's Playbook for the Digital Age, Brandon Carson describes the new playbook L&D needs to navigate the radical and complex transformation the digital age is demanding. Stemming from the sports world, a playbook ensures the players know their roles, connect as a team, and understand the winning strategy and how to execute the game plan. For L&D, a playbook can help build alignment across the team and with stakeholders by being flexible as business needs change. Carson walks you through the steps to formulate how a new playbook could help the alignment of your L&D function--whether it's restructuring, new skilling, or rescoping.

Book Synopsis

Build a Modern L&D Team

Organizations are facing an era of rapid acceleration. As new technology and digital strategies are integrated, workers at all levels will be required to build capability much faster than before, navigating more complex systems and processes. Yet, learning and development (L&D) has lagged in this area, as too many L&D functions still focus on transactional interactions across a broad and complex portfolio while starved for resources.

In L&D's Playbook for the Digital Age, Brandon Carson makes the case that it's time to reorient L&D, take a more proactive role in enabling the workforce, and create a new framework for developing skills and capabilities. L&D leaders must realize theirs is one of the most critical business functions and must be appropriately funded and resourced to realize the performance gains that are crucial to the business.

L&D cannot be caught standing still and, in fact, needs a new playbook to navigate the radical and complex transformation the digital age is demanding. Stemming from the sports world, a playbook ensures the players know their roles, connect as a team, and understand the winning strategy and how to execute the game plan. For L&D, a playbook can help build alignment across the team and with stakeholders by being flexible as business needs change.

Carson walks you through the steps to formulate how a new playbook could help the alignment of your L&D function--whether it's restructuring, new skilling, or rescoping. He asks readers to speak the language of business instead of the language of learning. For example, does your workforce repair aircraft or do they enable safe flight? In other words, can you be the visionary your organization requires?

Review Quotes

Brandon has brilliantly framed the requirements for L&D professionals and the C-Suite to make good on the promise of real impact from training. For most the road ahead won't be easy. L&D's Playbook for the Digital Age is an invaluable compass for organizations to reorient learning, leadership, and business strategy to the same sustainable future.--Christopher Allen, Chief Strategy Officer, Allen Interactions

Brandon Carson presents a powerful case for the marketplace dynamics behind why L&D needs, in most cases, to make dramatic changes in the short term in both what they need to do and how they need to do them. Follow his and his invited contributors' guidance in developing your L&D Playbook, as the best defense is always a good offense.--Guy W. Wallace, Performance Analyst & Instructional Architect, EPPIC Inc.

In a world of exponential change and ongoing disruption, who - if not you - will lead the L&D transformation? With Brandon Carson's cutting-edge L&D Playbook for the Digital Age you can formulate the strategy to guide your training strategy through much needed digital transformation, and become a trusted business partner for enhancing the skills, capabilities, and performance the digital workforce needs.--Oliver Amrein, UBS University Excellence

Never before have organizations been so desperate to learn and respond to new limitations and opportunities. Training is all about change--change in skills, mindset, performance. But training itself has been agonizingly slow to change. It's happening now. Resistance is futile. L&D's Playbook is a must read for tomorrow's power leaders.--Dr. Michael Allen

About the Author

Brandon Carson is an innovative learning strategist with extensive experience in creating global workforce development strategies in environments as varied as startups, technology companies, retail, and transportation. He is a popular speaker, delivering a wide variety of engaging presentations and workshops at industry events. Brandon has been honored with several industry awards, including the ATD BEST Award, the Learning Guild People's Choice Award, and three Brandon Hall Awards for Best Custom Learning Design. He is the author of Learning In The Age of Immediacy: Five Factors For How We Connect, Communicate, and Get Work Done from ATD Press. He has also served on the board of the North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA) and the ATD TK conference committee. Brandon invites you to chat with him on Twitter (@brandonwcarson) and on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/brandoncarson), where he engages in frank, interactive discussions about corporate learning and business transformation. Additional resources to complement this book can be found at learningplaybook.com.