Proving the Value of TD in Healthcare: Q&A With Tim Brock

The ATD Talent Development and Training in Healthcare Handbook (ATD Press, November 2021) addresses the many opportunities and challenges TD professionals face in the growing and rapidly changing healthcare space. Effective talent development is the thread that weaves through an entire healthcare organization to ensure it is up to standard with the latest practices in treating patients while providing a safe and engaging environment for staff. TD professionals have the unique role of tying together organizational and employee advancement in healthcare systems—and likewise, this handbook dives into areas for both business and professional evolution.

Written by 25 fellow healthcare practitioners with extensive experience in the field—from nurses, physicians, and administrators to instructional designers, chief learning officers, technology experts, and leaders across the industry, it covers six key themes across 26 chapters:

• Learning and Development Basics

• Organization Development

• Employee Development

• Business Acumen for the Health System

• Digital Transformation and Literacy

• Patient-Centric Care

In this spotlight Q&A, learn more about, Timothy R. Brock, senior associate of ROI Institute and faculty with Capella University, and his contribution to the book on evaluating learning impact.

How do you foresee the advancement of talent development in these areas within healthcare? (In an ideal world, how do you see this area flourishing for employee or organization development?)

We are going to hear more about how artificial intelligence, mixed reality, and other technologies are going to revolutionize healthcare training and talent development. We must embrace these technologies to remain relevant. However, they are tools, a means to an end. We will flourish by remaining focused on the human dimension—the healthcare provider. We must integrate high tech with high touch to prove the benefits of improved clinical care, patient outcomes, and talent development growth opportunities.

What is something unexpected you learned while working on this book?

After reading the book sections and chapter titles, I realized how critical this handbook is for our healthcare training and talent development professionals. Too many are doing their best without a roadmap or compass to guide their discernment between activity and productivity. It will also protect them from odious fads and canards. This is not another book that will sit on a shelf collecting dust.

Is there something professional or personal you are proud of accomplishing in the past year?

My third grandchild (my first granddaughter) was born, not that I had anything to do with that. I earned another competency-based certification this year. I added Certified Performance Improvement Facilitator to my list of credentials. I also mentored a few new EdDs through their applied research doctoral studies.

What is a fun fact about yourself or one sentence of advice you’d like to share?

My one sentence of advice is a simple phrase I try to practice daily: Semper et cogitemus et nos excolamus! (Always thinking, always improving!) The Latin makes you appear smart. In addition, I like quotes that express nuggets of wisdom that also make you appear smart. A quote from Sir Winston Churchill comes to mind when I reflect on the intent of this handbook. He wrote, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” I couldn’t have said it better