In today's hyper-competitive business climate, human capital development is the last frontier of competitive advantage. The businesses that are getting ahead are those that are most effective at converting investment in human capital development into proportional and beneficial impact on their organizations.

The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning describes a proven process for maximizing the value of training and development that has been used by organizations large and small across industries and around the world.

The authors tackle head-on the ''elephant in the room'' in learning and development: the amount of ''learning scrap'' training that employees attend but never apply. Trainers estimate that as much as 80% of all professional development is never utilized. That represents a huge amount of wasted value and a significant source of competitive advantage for the companies that successfully reclaim it.

The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning provides the framework, processes, and tools for doing so. The president of Work-Learning Research, Will Thalheimer, said of the second edition: ''No other book in the last decade has been more important for the workplace learning field.'' This third edition is even better, exemplifying the authors' commitment to continuous improvement. It has been extensively revised to include new research insights, examples, tools, references, and illustrations.

The now-famous ''6Ds'' are the six disciplines practiced by organizations that earn the highest return of their training investment:

• Define business outcomes
• Design the complete experience
• Deliver for application
• Drive learning transfer
• Deploy performance suppor
• Document results

What's unique about the 6Ds approach is its focus on learning as a business process-one that begins with a rigorous definition of the business objectives and continues through documenting the results in ways that inform action. The authors show why isolated training ''events'' have little impact and what workplace learning professionals must do to move from ''order takers'' to true strategic business partners.

Throughout the book, readers will find insights, checklists, practical steps to take, and examples of the success that is possible by applying a disciplined approach to learning and development. You will learn how to ensure that employees answer both ''Yes I can'' and ''Yes I will'' so that they apply what they learned after training. By doing so, you will earn a seat at the management table.

This book's insights can be applied to any learning and development program. Readers who do will be glad they made the commitment to a smarter investment in human capital.