With dynamic changes in technology, business models, and work practices, continuous learning or lifelong learning is now a business mandate. 

A research by the World Economic Forum reveals that more than half (54 percent) of all employees will require significant reskilling and upskilling in just three years.

How are companies strategizing for this shift? What are their key pain points and opportunity areas? Who is responsible for learning and how are they creating a habit of learning?

Take a look at these five books that every L&D professionals must get their hands on these to learn how to keep up with the changing world of learning and skilling.

How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens

From an early age, it is drilled into our heads: Restlessness, distraction, and ignorance are the enemies of success. We’re told that learning is all self-discipline, that we must confine ourselves to designated study areas, turn off the music, and maintain a strict ritual if we want to ace that test, memorize that presentation, or nail that piano recital.

In How We Learn, author Benedict Carey writes about how our brains absorb and retain information. What he discovers is that, from the moment we are born, we are all learning quickly, efficiently, and automatically; but in our zeal to systematize the process we have ignored valuable, naturally enjoyable learning tools like forgetting, sleeping, and daydreaming. Is a dedicated desk in a quiet room really the best way to study? Can altering your routine improve your recall? Are there times when distraction is good? Is repetition necessary? Carey’s search for answers to these questions yields a wealth of strategies that make learning more a part of our everyday lives—and less of a chore.

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise is a 2016 science book by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and science writer Robert Pool. The central theme of this book is the concept of deliberate practice, and the authors spend a significant part of the book laying out the differences between deliberate practice and related types of practice, such as purposeful practice, another highly efficient method of learning. 

Intended for a lay audience, Peak is an expository book on deliberate practice, a term coined by Ericsson to refer to the specific learning method used by experts to achieve superior performance in their fields, and mental representations. The book was written partly as a response to the misrepresented but increasingly commonplace idea of the "10,000-hour rule," popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008 book Outliers and which Gladwell had based on Ericsson's own research.

Write and Organize for Deeper Learning

Write and Organize for Deep Learning by Patti Shank will help anyone who builds adult instructional materials (content experts, instructors, instructional designers, trainers, and so on) apply critical learning, writing, information design, and usability principles. These principles make it easier for people to learn, remember, and apply what they are learning. The great news is that applying these principles is not hard!

Write and Organize for Deeper Learning tackles four strategies and 28 specific tactics. For each strategy, Patti offers specific actionable tactics that you can implement this very moment, with examples, checklists, and job aids. The four strategies are:
Strategy 1: Understand your audience’s needs
Strategy 2: Write for clarity
Strategy 3: Make text readable and legible
Strategy 4: Organize for memory and use

Fixing Feedback

In her book, Georgia Murch offers a practical guide to feedback in the workplace.

Everyone already knows how important feedback is, and we all know we should be giving it and receiving it regularly — yet we still do it poorly or avoid it entirely. This book shows you how to do it right. You'll learn what exactly constitutes useful feedback, how to deliver it effectively, how to receive it gracefully and how to use it to strengthen yourself, your team and your business. You'll learn critical communication skills that you can put into practice today, and get on track to building a "feedback culture" that results in highly engaged, highly productive employees.

Revolutionize Learning & Development: Performance and Innovation Strategy for the Information Age

Existing training and development practices need a major overhaul. Learning and development practitioners and managers must increasingly face the fact that old methods are no longer relevant in today's tech-savvy world and, in many cases, they simply don't work.

In Revolutionize Learning and Development by Clark N. Quinn you'll get a straightforward look at how people really learn and get introduced to practical steps for rethinking, redesigning, and reestablishing learning delivery. This book shows you how to take advantage of new understandings and new technologies so you can make a meaningful impact on your organization.