The Professional Development Issue Everyone’s Ignoring (And How to Solve It)
I was at this corporate training session in Brisbane last week when the fella beside me started scrolling through emails. Can’t say I blamed the poor bugger. The facilitator was going on about “synergistic paradigm shifts” while showing us PowerPoint slides that looked like they were designed in 2003. After twenty two years running training programs across Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, I’ve seen this same tired formula repeated everywhere from manufacturing plants in Adelaide to creative agencies in Fitzroy.
The thing that drives me mental? We’re throwing money at training that trains zilch but definitely enriches the training companies.
The whole industry has got it arse about. The focus is on what’s easy to package and deliver, not what your team desperately needs. I’ve walked into countless organisations where the L&D manager proudly shows me their “complete 47-module leadership program” while their best performers are walking out the door faster than you can say “employee engagement survey”.
The dirty little secret? About seventy three percent of professional development initiatives fail to create lasting behaviour change. That number’s from my gut, but spend five minutes in any office and you’ll see I’m not far off.
I remember working with Sarah, an complete gun at a transport company. One of those unique people who could look at a logistics nightmare and see the solution immediately. They invested major money sending her to a cookie-cutter management course. The material was so disconnected from real 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.
The core issue? Learning has become mass production.
Training has become this mass-produced item where one size fits nobody particularly well. You get the same recycled content whether you’re managing a team of tradespeople or leading a finance department. It’s the equivalent of ordering pizza and getting the same toppings regardless of what you genuinely wanted. Sometimes it works. Usually it doesn’t.
The second issue is timing. Training gets scheduled around budget cycles and conference room availability, not when people really need help. People get grouped together because they have similar roles, not because they face similar challenges.
I worked with a Geelong manufacturer who thought all team leaders should attend identical training sessions. Some of these fellas had been leading people since before mobile phones existed. Meanwhile, the newer supervisors were scared stiff of saying anything that might upset someone. Guess which group got the best value?
Here’s where I might lose some of you: I think most soft skills training is a waste of money.
The skills matter, but we’ve got adult learning totally wrong when it comes to people stuff. You can’t teach someone to be a better leader by showing them a video about active listening. Imagine learning to play cricket by studying the rule book.
Real professional development happens in the messy reality of real work situations. The training that genuinely works focuses on problems people are losing sleep over. Not case studies. Not role plays with actors. Genuine problems that affected the bottom line.
Training coordinators get uncomfortable because it doesn’t fit into tidy learning modules. The preference is for clear metrics and standardized evaluations. But learning does not happen in neat boxes.
I’ve started refusing clients who want me to deliver “standard” programs. If you want standard, hire someone else. The training gets created specifically for your industry, your culture, your particular headaches.
Look at performance conversations, for instance. Most companies assume their leaders are terrible at performance discussions. The conversation between a trades supervisor and a newcomer about following procedures bears no resemblance to a creative director discussing brand strategy. Completely different power dynamics, relationships, and ways of talking.
Problem three: what happens after training? Absolutely nothing.
The learning stops the moment people return to their desks. Nobody follows up, nobody checks in, nobody provides ongoing help. It’s like going to the gym once and expecting to get fit.
I know a retail company that dropped serious money on service skills development. Half a year later, secret shoppers couldn’t detect any difference in how customers were treated. The program itself wasn’t terrible. Nobody provided ongoing coaching or practice opportunities.
This might upset some people, but most trainers have never actually run a 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.
You see this mismatch everywhere – advice that works in training rooms but nowhere else. Real business is messier and more complicated than most training acknowledges.
Smart companies have figured out a few key things that most others miss.
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%”. Not “improved sales skills” but “increase conversion rates for existing customers by 15%”.
The second key is getting immediate managers on board. Direct managers shape your skills more than any workshop or seminar. Most businesses sideline the very people who could make training stick.
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.
I’m not saying all traditional training is useless. Hands-on technical training delivers results when it’s properly structured. Health and safety programs genuinely protect people. Regulatory training protects you from legal problems.
But the soft skills development that most organisations desperately need? That requires a completely different approach.
The next generation of professional development mirrors old-school apprenticeships rather than classroom sessions. Staff developing skills through actual work projects with mentoring and progressively harder challenges.
You have to acknowledge that growth is unpredictable, unique to each person, and can’t be rushed. It requires training supervisors to develop people, not just assign tasks. 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. It’s easier to book another workshop and hope for different results.
Organisations that crack this code will leave their competitors in the dust. These companies will build skills faster, reduce turnover, and generate real value from development budgets.
Meanwhile, other organisations will keep throwing money at programs that change nothing.
Your call.
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