Start, Build, and Navigate Your Training and TD Career
ATD’s Handbook for Training and Talent Development is the premier resource and compendium of everything a training and talent development (TD) professional needs to know to start, build, and navigate a thriving career.
Now in its third edition and grounded by the Talent Development Capability Model, this is more than a revised volume. This edition offers an up-to-date view of the growing roles of talent development professionals, our changing world of work, and the critical need for business alignment.
Edited by Elaine Biech, the third edition is divided into eight sections comprising 57 chapters authored by 100 expert practitioners—the brightest thinkers in the field—who share foundational and advanced perspectives and information. The Handbook dives deeply into growing professional expertise and personal skills, virtual learning and remote work, trends affecting TD, managing organizational and career change, growing roles in TD, and understanding organizational impact and business alignment. Fifty online tools are available to download, and there is also a glossary and references.
TD professionals, keep this practical, companionable volume close by; it’s the reference you will always turn to.
Elaine Biech, CPTD fellow, believes excellence isn’t optional. Her passion is helping others achieve their passion. She specializes in maximizing individual, team, and organizational effectiveness using her expertise in OD, training, and consulting. She custom designs every project to address each client’s unique needs. She conducts strategic planning and implements organization-wide systems including process improvement, change management, leadership development, onboarding, and mentoring programs. She has developed hundreds of training courses and apps. As the founder and president of ebb associates inc, Elaine helps organizations implement large-scale change and is particularly adept at turning dysfunctional teams into productive teams.
As a management and executive consultant, trainer, and designer, Elaine’s clients include the US Navy, China Sinopec, China Telecom, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Banco de Credito Peru, Lockheed Martin, Outback Steakhouse, FAA, Land O’Lakes, McDonald’s, Lands’ End, Johnson Wax, Federal Reserve Bank, Department of Homeland Security, American Family Insurance, Marathon Oil, Hershey Chocolate, NASA, Newport News Shipbuilding, Kohler Company, American Red Cross, Association of Independent CPAs, The College of William and Mary, and hundreds of other public and private sector organizations. She designed the first process improvement programs for The Newport News Shipbuilding Company and McDonald’s as well as Hershey Chocolate’s first creativity and innovation program; she also presented one of the first ever virtual training sessions in 1986 for NASA.
Elaine Biech, president of ebb associates inc, a strategic implementation, leadership development, and experiential learning consulting firm, has been in the field for more than 30 years helping organizations work through large-scale change. She has presented at dozens of national and international conferences including 34 consecutive ATD National Conferences. She has been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Management Update, Investor's Business Daily, and Fortune. She is the author and editor of 86 books, receiving national awards for two of them.
Among her extensive body of published work are many ATD titles, including the flagship publication, The ASTD Handbook: The Definitive Reference for Training and Development (2014). Elaine is the principle author for ATD's Body of Knowledge (TDBoK). Other ATD titles include Skills for Career Success (2021), ATD's Foundations of Talent Development (2018), What Works: Starting a TD Program (2018), ATD's Action Guide to Talent Development (2018), The Art and Science of Training (2017), Change Management Training (2016), New Supervisor Training (2015), The Book of Road-Tested Activities (co-published with Pfeiffer, 2011), ASTD Leadership Handbook (2010), ASTD's Ultimate Train the Trainer (2009), 10 Steps to Successful Training (2009), ASTD Handbook for Workplace Learning Professionals (2008), and Thriving Through Change: A Leader's Practical Guide to Change Mastery (2007).
Elaine specializes in helping leaders maximize their effectiveness. Customizing all of her work for individual clients, she conducts strategic planning sessions and implements corporate-wide systems, such as quality improvement, change management, reengineering of business processes, and mentoring programs. Elaine is a consummate training professional, facilitating training on a wide range of workplace and business topics. She is particularly adept at turning dysfunctional teams into productive ones. As a management consultant, trainer, and designer, she provides services globally to public and private sector organizations to prepare them for current challenges.
A long-time ATD volunteer, she served on the association's national board of directors and executive committee. She is the recipient of four national ATD awards including the 2020 Distinguished Contributor Award, 2006 Gordon Bliss Memorial Award, 2004 Volunteer Staff partnership Award, and the 1992 ASTD Torch Award. In 2012, she became the inaugural CPTD Fellow Program Honoree from the ATD Certification Institute. She wrote the first ASTD Training Certificate Program and has designed five additional certificate programs. She was the 1995 Wisconsin Women Entrepreneur's Mentor Awardee, served on the Independent Consultants Association's Advisory Committee, and on CCL's Board of Governors and Executive Team. She currently serves on ISA's Board of Directors. Elaine believes that excellence isn't optional.
