In this episode, Donald H Taylor, chair of the Learning Technologies conference talks about a cluster of books by Nigel Harrison, which includes "How to be a True Business Partner by Performance Consulting," "Improving Employee Performance," and "How to Deal with Power and Manipulation by Performance Consultant." These books are important for Learning and Development professionals, and the Donald notes that Nigel Harrison has a background in Psychology, which he applies to the world of performance consulting. The books aim to help Learning and Development professionals have effective conversations about performance in the business and address gaps between current and ideal behavior as a proper business partner. One key idea is to ask more questions and not just take orders when organizing training.

The core of "How to be a True Business Partner" is a seven-stage process, which is deceptively simple and involves:

1. identifying the problem
2. involved parties
3. current situation
4. desired outcome
5. cost of the gap
6. causes
7. potential solutions
8. action plan.

We talk about the importance of building a trusted relationship with clients, which involves joint problem solving and challenging each other.