Since I’ve decided to retire, I’m finding I work more hours than I did when I was a corporate hostage. The good news is what I do is not work, and I’ll always be on top of myself because you cannot downsize a team of one. The only organics I can hug and pet are the cats, and they will not report me to HR…as long as there are plenty of treats. Here’s a short bio I’ve been using on the books.

The author is a recovering Corporate Learning Performance Consultant, partially retired, largely unsupervised, and with enough time on his hands to write short stories and self-publish fiction novels for Amazon. He is a man who would rather fall into an extraordinary new tale than stand in line for ordinary things. Guilty of exposing twisted humor and wit in the imaginings that morph from inside his stories, usually from characters he really likes and often at the expense of those he would just as soon punch in the throat. Some of his stories are about actual experiences, although maybe embellished with enhanced truth for added color. He lives with enough and is comfortably established between corn and soybean in the rolling hills of southeastern Indiana with two girls, Lilly & Boo.

Being mostly retired, I’m enjoying time to write, and I’ve decided to begin listing what I’ve authored and published on MY BOOKSHELF with direct links to Amazon. Each book is displayed with a short description.

Books written so far are available on Amazon, and any new editions will be added at the top of this list.

Learning & Development (L&D) is currently facing a tipping point, call it sea-change if you like, regarding the tsunami of digital initiatives infiltrating enterprise workflows, not the least of which is Digital Transformation with exploding cloud-based technology options. The implied changes represent disruptions impacting every corner of the enterprise and every workforce member. Status quo Training strategies are falling short, held hostage by the long-held Myth that TRAINING DRIVES PERFORMANCE. This Myth perpetuates a false narrative that limits effectiveness when we depend on training as our default solution. This book debunks the Myth by going to a new ground zero for Discovery – Point-of-Work.

Is the Myth truly a myth? Yes, because an assumption is commonly made that if Training is completed, work competencies are met to improve performance. However, measurable PERFORMANCE has yet to occur. Why? The workforce has yet to return to their respective Points-of-Work to execute and produce measurable value. Therefore, the only deliverable L&D can brag about is POTENTIAL. Stakeholders want proof of a measurable impact on the bottom line. Where do bottom-line results manifest? In post-training workflows at numerous Points-of-Work! This book shares many confessions on good, bad, and ugly experiences completing the Point-of-Work adoption journey.

In this book, you will learn about Intentional Design based on a new ground zero – the Point-of-Work by using a Point-of-Work Assessment (PWA) to accomplish holistic discovery over six categories of performance-restraining attributes. You will learn about performance-accelerating technology like Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) that make intentionally designed support assets accessible contextually within workflows at moments of need. You will create Learning Performance Solution Road Maps that enable collaboration with ISD/DEV resources and are compatible with Workflow Delivery Technology like the DAP. The book provides access to PWA Worksheets (Excel Workbook) and instructions on completing a PWA. Typical Performance Ninja wardrobe items like black pajamas and cheap sunglasses are not included in this book.

Confessions of a Performance Ninja: Optimizing Workforce Performance @ Point-of-Work

I suppose I could blame this book on my grandfather, Ralph Mervin Wise since he always had a story to tell. To be honest, he had nothing to do with anything included in this collection, but the desire to write stories, tell lies and embellish the truth had to have been handed down from somebody. This book, “Always a Story,” is just such a collection of short stories that include a little fictional spirit possession to a ghostly love tale. The stories that sprung from actual experiences cannot be blamed on anyone other than yours truly. Stupid shows up in many of them and represents missed opportunities for the grim reaper to have taken me out years ago. He is either incompetent, or I’m just damn lucky to still be here, still writing stories, still lying, and still embellishing the truth to add color and interesting commentary. I only ask that you do not judge me, as I’ve already earned an express ticket straight to hell on my own for one enhanced truth you’ll read about shortly.

Always a Story: A Collection of Short Stories, Lies, & Other Embellishments

This story starts with events happening during a Halloween party intended to be the party of the century for Sandy Tillman. The event turned out to be considerably more involved and launched her into a complex series of misadventures, including a near assault interrupted by a double murder she did not commit. She gets blamed for it and indicted for second-degree murder…never mind that an entity from another dimension pulled the trigger. Never mind the fire she started that burned her best friend’s estate to the ground. Never mind traveling back in time to retrieve another version of “Mirror Mirror” to replace the one lost in the fire. Never mind that a different timeline meant being dropped into a parallel universe where nothing was as it seemed. Never mind a narrow escape through a portal from the county jail moments before going to the state prison for 15 years. If only she had not picked up that damn book “Mirror Mirror.” If only she had not fallen into that place you fall into when traveling through time. We are left wondering what comes next for Sandy when she finds herself involved in a relationship with an entity she never intended to have. If only she had not picked up that damn book.

Mirror Mirror: Halloween Party of the Century

Dr. Cara Williams, a 32-year-old Clinical Psychologist, has a dark secret she fights to repress. Being the lead researcher on a controversial Dream Therapy project called Dream Weaver, she finds satisfaction in her work, that is until an accident in the lab rewrites the rules of Dream Therapy. Further complications surface when the core technology known as Dreamscape can not only capture dreams for analysis but can also transmit previously captured dreams to other research participants. One such participant is Russell Carter, a fifth-year senior who entered college after six years in the Marines as a Force Recon Scout Sniper. Russ has a dark secret too, and it haunts his dreams relentlessly. Because of his past, his self-esteem has taken a significant hit, and his actions while in Afghanistan have made him consider himself unredeemable. Dream Therapy may be a source of relief for him, but he may never get the chance to find out. Devious and deceptive undercurrents are at work to exploit the Dreamscape technology driven by greed and personal gain. Others want to destroy Dreamscape and anyone attached to the research to protect big-money investments in the pharmaceutical industry threatened by Cara’s breakthrough discovery. Cara and Russ both have what the other needs, but neither realizes just how much until realities violently rewrite their dreams.

Dreamscape Conspiracy