Description
Book Synopsis
Determine Organizational Needs Despite Limited Resources
Needs Assessment on a Shoestring offers talent development professionals a process for addressing organizational needs and determining whether training is the solution. Needs assessment pros Kelly L. Jones and Jody N. Lumsden apply the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to provide guidance, quick tips, and shortcuts for investigating and uncovering everything you can about the organizational problem you need to solve.
With this book, you will learn to build a needs assessment strategy, gather insight through data analysis, and put forward effective solution recommendations. You’ll also pick up strategies for borrowing existing information, talent, and resources, and for making resource management decisions. Regardless of the scope of the project, the constraints of the business problem, or how you get the job done, the steps associated with needs assessments are flexible enough to scale up or down.
To conduct high-quality needs assessments, think like a detective. The detectives Sherlock Holmes, Velma Dinkley, and Hercule Poirot didn’t have large teams, unlimited budgets, or a bottomless well of resources to work with, but they succeeded by identifying who, where, and how to solve mysteries that no one else could. With this book, talent development professionals can too. This is a perfect resource for small companies—and departments of one or few—who need to get started right away.
The Association for Talent Development’s On a Shoestring series helps professionals successfully execute core topics in training and talent development when facing limitations of time, money, staff, and other resources. Using the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to problem solving, this series is designed for practitioners who work as a department of one; for new or “accidental” trainers, instructional designers, and learning managers who need fast, inexpensive access to practical strategies that work; and for those who work for small organizations or in industries that have limited training and development resources.
Trade Review“Needs Assessment on a Shoestring is a gold mine for anyone operating in the training world with tight budgets and time constraints. It gets straight to the point, offering pragmatic and insightful guidance to help you glean the insights you need for successful training results.”
—Mike Taylor, Learning, Design, and Technology Consultant
“Put on your detective’s hat and get ready to dive into this incredibly practical guide to conducting the most thorough needs analysis you can on a shoestring. Kelly Jones and Jody Lumsden offer multiple techniques, frameworks, their own stories, time savers, and useful tools. This book will be on my team’s reading list.”
—Megan Torrance, CEO, TorranceLearning; Author, Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers
“One of the most common objections to executing a needs assessment is a lack of time. Needs Assessment on a Shoestring is a terrific resource for you to stop with the excuses and kick off L&D projects with a needs assessment.”
—Cara North, Founder and Chief Learning Consultant, The Learning Camel; Author, Learning Experience Design Essentials
“Conducting a needs assessment for a business problem seems so overwhelming. I am confident that anyone can do so successfully by following the clear, practical steps in Needs Assessment on a Shoestring. This fabulous guide has a realistic and supportive tone, as well as tools, samples, templates, and illustrated resources. It’s a must read for anyone facing an organizational challenge.”
—Julie Jansen, Executive/Career Coach; Author, I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This
Table of ContentsAbout the On a Shoestring Series
Dedication and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. Build
Chapter 1. Building the Strategy
Chapter 2. Building the Case: Data Collection
Chapter 3. Building the Case: Data Analysis
Chapter 4. Building the Recommendations
Part 2. Borrow
Chapter 5. Borrowing Existing Data
Chapter 6. Borrowing Time and Talent
Part 3. Buy
Chapter 7. Budgeting for Time
Chapter 8. Buying Smart
Chapter 9. Buy-In
Bringing It All Together
Appendix A. Tools and Templates
Appendix B. A Worked Example
Index
References and Resources
About the Authors
