The Book: Training Is Broken
Learning Doesn't Have to Fail. A respectful provocation on why we need to reimagine learning in the age of AI.
We've professionalized organizational learning to the point where we've sterilized it. Training Is Broken challenges the fundamental assumptions that keep training and L&D trapped in a cycle of expensive ineffectiveness—from ignoring the reality that 70% of learning is forgotten within 72 hours, to the illusion that transferring information creates lasting change. Through twelve provocative essays, this book questions what we've normalized: the metrics that measure activity instead of impact, the frameworks that promise control but deliver constraint, and the belief that learning happens through instruction rather than curiosity. [More]
The Goal
This book doesn't offer a guaranteed formula. It offers questions, frameworks, and provocations designed to help you think differently about how adults actually learn—and what that means for how you design, deliver, and measure learning in your organization.
The goal isn't to convince you that everything you're doing is wrong. It's to help you see what might no longer be working—and give you language and frameworks to experiment with what comes next.
Access Options
Free Access
Read the complete book or individual essays to spark conversations and rethinking possibilities in your organization.
Available now:
What It Does
You don't have time to read through all 12 essays in the book Training is Broken. You want to read but not yet sure if it's worth your time. Or, you've just read the book. You're intrigued about possibilities. You see the problems clearly.
But now what?
- How do you prioritize what would be most useful to read?
- How do you apply the insights to your specific situation?
- How do you communicate the ideas in this book to your team and stakeholders?
- What should you actually do differently on Monday morning?
Generic advice won't work. Your context is unique. Your challenges are specific.
Why It Exists
Reading a book gives you insight. Applying that insight in your specific organizational context—with its unique politics, constraints, and opportunities—requires a different kind of support.
The Book Navigator bridges that gap. It knows the book's arguments, evidence, and frameworks as deeply as you will—and helps you translate them into actionable strategies for your role and situation.
How It Works: Over 125+ Expert AI Prompts Across 6 Reader Types
Rather than generic AI responses, the Navigator offers curated and professionally written prompts organized by reader type and use case:
Six Reader Types:
- CEO / Board Member
- CHRO / Chief People Officer
- CLO / Chief Learning Officer
- L&D Team Member
- Learning/Training Practitioner
- Curious Reader
What Makes It Different
- Zero generic advice: Every response is grounded in specific arguments and frameworks from the book
- Role-specific guidance: Prompts designed for your professional context and political reality
- Strategic depth: Not a chatbot—a thinking partner that understands organizational complexity
- Implementation focus: Designed to move you from insight to action
Four Modes of Engagement:
1. UNDERSTAND
Synthesize concepts, clarify arguments, translate into executive language
Example (CEO): "Summarize this book's core argument in terms that will resonate with a board focused on ROI and risk."
2. ASSESS
Diagnose your current situation, identify blind spots, surface hidden assumptions
Example (CHRO): "What cultural assumptions might our current training approach be reinforcing that could limit organizational agility?"
3. APPLY
Design interventions, adapt frameworks, create implementation strategies
Example (CLO): "How can I use the SPARK framework to redesign our leadership development program while working within existing budget constraints?"
4. COMMUNICATE
Navigate stakeholders, build coalitions, address resistance, craft messaging
Example (L&D Team Member): "My team is skeptical about 'another learning initiative.' How do I position this as fundamentally different?"