For years there have been dozens of books about training and how to do it more effectively, with more impact, with greater focus on performance and so on and on. Yet despite the surge of books and advice over the past decade, training departments continue to struggle to produce concrete results and the value of training is constantly questioned.

But some "upstarts" are achieving results in a radical, non-traditional way in small pockets around the world. Based on four years of Advantage Performance Group's groundbreaking work,and featuring numerous real-life stories and several illuminating case studies this book shares the process, the journey and the professional courage these HRD professionals took to ensure that they were helping their organisations achieve important business results.

What struck the authors was that the key to achieving these results was not so much the processes involved, but the mindset these trainers had. They looked at their situations and decided not to do training the same old way and get the same old sub-optimal results. They had the courage to “stick their necks out” and say to senior managers in their organisations, “we can do this better—and we will.” They lived outside of the training department compound and adopted high-impact learning principles and stuck to them.

As a result, trainees used new learning on the job in ways that drove results; their managers supported them with real action, not just permission to participate; senior executives took notice and demanded continued accountability and training took on a new role – of trusted advisor and business partner.

This new book shows how any trainer can adopt a courageous mindset to achieve more powerful and effective results.