Professional Development Training: The Uncomfortable Truth About What Genuinely Works
The bloke sitting next to me at last month’s leadership workshop kept checking his phone every thirty seconds. Fair dinkum, I didn’t blame him. The facilitator was droning on about “synergistic paradigm shifts” while showing us PowerPoint slides that looked like they were designed in 2003. Twenty-plus years in this industry across every major Australian city, I’ve seen this same tired formula repeated everywhere from construction firms in Darwin to fintech companies in Melbourne.
The thing that drives me mental? We’re throwing money at training that trains no one but definitely enriches the training companies.
Nearly all training programs are built backwards. It begins with what looks good in a brochure instead of what actually solves workplace problems. I cannot count how many times I’ve seen HR departments excited about their elaborate training curriculum while watching their top talent head for the exit.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: roughly three-quarters of workplace training produces zilch meaningful change. That number’s from my gut, but spend five minutes in any office and you’ll see I’m not far off.
There’s this operations manager I know, Sarah, smart woman in the freight industry. Sharp operations manager, 15 years experience, could solve problems that would make your head spin. Her company sent her to a three-day “Strategic Thinking for Leaders” course that cost them $forty five hundred bucks. The material was so disconnected from genuine logistics work it might as well have been about running a bakery. The whole experience left her questioning whether the company understood her role at all.
This is problem number one: we’ve turned learning into a factory process.
We’ve turned workplace learning into fast food – fast, cheap, and ultimately unsatisfying. A forklift operator and a marketing director receive identical leadership training. Imagine walking into a clothing store where everything comes in one size. Sometimes it works. Usually it doesn’t.
The second issue is timing. The majority of professional development happens when it’s convenient for the business calendar, not when people are ready to learn or facing particular challenges. People get grouped together because they have similar roles, not because they face similar challenges.
There was this factory in regional Victoria that decided every supervisor needed the same communication course. Half the group were old-school managers who could sort out workplace drama with their eyes closed. Meanwhile, the newer supervisors were scared stiff of saying anything that might upset someone. Guess which group got the greatest value?
I’m about to upset some people: the majority of interpersonal skills training is absolutely useless.
These abilities are essential, but our approach to teaching them is fundamentally flawed. PowerPoint presentations do not create better managers any more than recipe books create master chefs. Imagine learning to play cricket by studying the rule book.
Genuine learning occurs when people are dealing with real problems in real time. The best training I’ve ever designed involved people working on new skills on real problems they were already dealing with. Not case studies. Not role plays with actors. Issues that kept the CEO awake at night.
Training coordinators get uncomfortable because it does not fit into tidy learning modules. The preference is for clear metrics and standardized evaluations. But learning doesn’t happen in neat boxes.
I don’t work with companies that want cookie-cutter programs anymore. If you want standard, hire someone else. The training gets created specifically for your industry, your culture, your particular headaches.
Consider something like giving feedback. Every organisation reckons their managers need help with difficult conversations. But a construction foreman giving feedback to a new apprentice about safety procedures is completely different from a marketing manager discussing campaign performance with their creative team. Different stakes, different relationships, different communication styles.
The biggest issue might be what comes next – which is usually sweet FA.
The learning stops the moment people return to their desks. There’s no reinforcement, no practice opportunities, no coaching support. Imagine having one tennis lesson and expecting to play Wimbledon.
There’s a major retailer that invested nearly two hundred grand in customer experience training. Six months later, mystery shoppers found no measurable improvement in customer interactions. The training was actually quite good. But there was zero follow-up support to help people apply what they’d learned.
Here’s something controversial: I think most trainers don’t understand business.
They’re experts at adult learning theory and instructional design. They can create compelling presentations and interactive exercises. Most have never faced an angry customer, missed a deadline that mattered, or had to let someone go.
This disconnect shows up in training content that sounds great in theory but falls apart when people try to use it in their actual jobs. The day-to-day reality of managing people and hitting targets is far more complex than any course curriculum.
The organisations that actually see results from training investment take a completely different approach.
The first difference is crystal-clear objectives. Rather than woolly aims like “enhanced teamwork,” they focus on measurable problems like “reduce customer complaints by 25%”. Forget generic outcomes like “better customer relationships” – they want “reduce client churn by 20%”.
Point two: they make sure direct supervisors are part of the solution. Direct managers shape your skills more than any workshop or seminar. Too many companies act like supervisors are barriers to learning instead of essential allies.
The third difference is focusing on real results instead of happy faces on evaluation forms. Who cares if people enjoyed the training if they’re not doing anything different six months later?.
Telstra has done some interesting work in this area, creating development programs that are embedded directly into people’s regular work rather than being separate events. Learning happens through real work with mentoring and support along the way.
Don’t get me wrong – not every conventional training program is garbage. Practical skills development works well when it’s done right. Safety training saves lives. Regulatory training protects you from legal problems.
But the soft skills development that most organisations desperately need? That requires a completely different approach.
The future of professional development looks more like apprenticeships and less like workshops. Learning through hands-on experience with coaching support and increasing responsibility.
You have to acknowledge that growth is unpredictable, unique to each person, and can’t be rushed. It means investing in managers who can coach rather than just manage. Results are judged on impact, not on how many people attended training.
Too many businesses avoid this transition because it forces them to confront the failure of their current programs. Scheduling another seminar feels safer than overhauling your entire approach.
Organisations that crack this code will leave their competitors in the dust. They’ll develop people faster, retain talent longer, and get better business results from their development investment.
Meanwhile, other organisations will keep throwing money at programs that change nothing.
Your call.
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