The Field Guide to the 6Ds: How to Use the Six Disciplines to Transform Learning into Business Results

Introduction

Shortly after the turn of the millennium, we became interested in the challenge of creating even greater value from training and development. We knew that learning speed and effectiveness would become even more important in an increasingly competitive, global, and knowledge-based business climate. We were convinced that well-executed training would be an important source of competitive advantage, but we were certain that training could—and should—yield a greater return on investment than it does today.

We recognized that training creates value only to the extent that it is transferred and applied to work in a way that improves performance (Figure I.1). We focused our efforts on improving learning transfer, since there was overwhelming ...