Book Review: Reverse Training Design by Mark Mrohs

Mark Mrohs’ new book, Reverse Training Design: Start at the End to Revolutionize Corporate Learning, is a worthy addition to the L&D bookshelf. With over 40 years designing and delivering corporate training, Mrohs brings wit, grit, experience, and the application of the learning sciences to the design and development process.

Mrohs’ main point is that we should begin with the end in mind—specifically to the work performance required of the learner—and work backward from there. He’s not the first to suggest this, but he adds important nuance by insisting that we begin early in outlining how we will evaluate the success of our programs. He tells us not to create our learning objectives until we first determine how we’ll assess the proficiency of our learners. This is excellent advice! As I’ve argued elsewhere, we need to first determine our evaluation objectives so that we free ourselves to think beyond the content of our courses—focusing instead on the work performance and the evaluation methods we will use as evidence for that performance.

 

There’s a lot to like in Reverse Training Design. Mark is a charming and highly credible guide. He writes well and offers numerous real-world examples. From the first pages you can tell he’s been there, done that, and has worked thoughtfully over many years to finetune his approach and learn from his experience.

He reminds us of many important science-of-learning findings and shows us how to incorporate them in our learning designs. While some design books are strong on process and weak on research, or vice versa, Mrohs brings it all together with a clear process structure buoyed by a strong research base.

A few quibbles. I wish Mark would have used another framework rather than Bloom’s Taxonomy, as it only tangentially aligns with real-world performance. Also, the term “learner-centric—even though relevant as defined in the book in comparison to “instructor-centric” practices—too often gets misconstrued in L&D to mean that we do what makes learners happy—and we know from the research that we humans, as learners, often have poor intuitions about learning.

Despite my fussiness, I really like the book! Mark reminds us regularly about important L&D practices and ideas. “Not doing training is okay.” “Retention is invisible. Retrieval makes it observable.” “Minimize cognitive load by design.” Mark also introduces some unique and intriguing ideas. One favorite is that he reminds us that when we evaluate, we can evaluate learners and their ability to perform, and we can also evaluate how well the organization enables transfer to work performance. Zinger! Transfer is not the sole responsibility of the learner.

Mark Mrohs’ Reverse Training Design is a great read and a great resource for learning professionals at every stage of their careers. Packaged with recommendations. Informed by research. Mrohs brings his hard-earned wisdom to life in a compelling, easy to follow narrative.