Why Training Fails

Sometimes when I conduct my workshop on Effective Meetings, one of the participants will ask, "Where's my boss?" And I say, "Your boss claimed to be an expert on holding effective meetings." Then the person laughs. "My boss needs to attend your workshop more than anyone in our company. And without our manager's support, no one will use this." This is bad because if no one uses the ideas presented in a workshop, the client will conclude that training doesn't work. And then the company might abandon all training. Here are three important issues that determine the effectiveness of training. 1) People follow the leader. Any training program will be more successful if management supports it. This is why I always involve top executives in planning my workshops. I also ask them to attend. And I recommend follow-up sessions to review the material covered in the workshop. In fact, I only work with people who value and support learning. Training has earned a bad reputation because many programs were just thrown over the fence at employees who were sent to be fixed. It