Designing Powerful Training: The Sequential-Iterative Model (SIM)

"An excellent, comprehensive, and very practical guide for training design.
--Beverly Popek, director of human resources, professional & consulting services, MCI Telecommunications

The answer is here. The heart of this book is the Sequential-Iterative Model (SIM) for training design. A fancy term for a simple, elegant concept: training should be a step-by-step process with a feedback loop that enables you to continually refine your training based on experience.

"You will not find another book that so thoroughly examines the process of creating training events. For anyone who wants to do quality design work, this book is highly recommAnded."
--Mel Silberman, author of Active Training and 101 Ways to Make Training Active

This book is a tool to help you design training that is:

• Effective: Accomplishing specific objectives that aim toward success
• Efficient: Meeting training objectives without wasting time or energy
• Engaging: Involvin g learners and incorporating their experience into the training

You get checklists and evaluations to guide your development process. Out of their many years of experience, Milano and Ullius have created a practical guidebook that enables you to structure training so it is fluid and adaptable. Many guides to instructional design are stuffy, academic, and difficult to apply to the real world. Not so with Designing Powerful Training. This book is easy to approach and visually refreshing, with over 70 figures and illustrations!

You'll receive an overview of training basics, including:

• Identifying the central characteristics of adult learners
• Recognizing the essential skills for instructional design
• Conducting a simple and quick needs assessment . . . and much more!

Next, the authors introduce you to the revolutionary SIM design. This design guides you through:

• defining training goals and objectives
• designing a big-picture outline for your training program
• refining your outline to create a detailed training process
• selecting media for your training events
• evaluating the success of your designs.

"I like this book! The [SIM] gives me the connection between training design and organizational performance needs I have been looking for in other books."-- Joseph A. Greenberg, professor of higher education administration, The George Washington University

An essential piece of the puzzle is the running example that the authors follow throughout the book. This is where the rubber meets the road. You see the SIM in action and you recognize how you'll make it work for you.