When Training Isn’t the Answer

The request lands in your inbox on a Tuesday. Sales numbers are down, customer complaints are up, and leadership has diagnosed the problem: the team needs training. Can you have something ready by the end of the month?

You could say yes. You probably have before. But somewhere between building the course and watching nothing change, a nagging thought creeps in. What if training was never actually the solution?

L&D professionals are not training vending machines. Yet that’s exactly how many organizations treat the function. A problem surfaces, someone pushes a button, and out pops a course. The most effective L&D professionals know that sometimes the right answer is proposing a solution that doesn’t start with training. Recommending coaching, job aids, process improvements, or performance support instead could be the smarter (and more productive) way to go. 

The hardest part? Saying that out loud to a stakeholder who already has their mind made up.

What We Will Discuss

• How to recognize when a performance problem isn’t a training problem
• The real cost of saying yes when the answer should be “let’s look at this differently.”
• How to redirect a stakeholder who has already decided they need a course

Come Ready to Contribute

Bring a real situation. One where you built the course and nothing changed, or one where you pushed back and it paid off. Better yet, bring your alternative solutions. The time you solved a process problem instead of building a course. The job aid that fixed in one page what a three-module eLearning couldn’t. The coaching conversation that actually moved the needle. The messier the story, the better the conversation.

Can’t Make It In Person? No Worries, We’ve Got Your Back! Register And Receive The Following:

 Access to the Learning Rebels resource page with all the extra goodies

 Copy of the video recording

 Copy of the chatbox transcription

 Copy of the full session transcript & summary

 Additional resources such as books, articles, and handouts