My Thoughts

Why Your Company's Training Budget is Being Wasted (And How I Know This Will Trigger You)

Three weeks ago, I sat through another "revolutionary" leadership workshop. Same PowerPoint deck I've seen since 2009. Same role-playing exercises that make grown adults cringe harder than watching their teenager's TikTok videos.

The facilitator—fresh from university with zero management experience—asked us to "envision our leadership journey." I envisioned walking out, but the coffee was decent and I'd already charged the company $1,200 for the day.

This is exactly why 78% of training budgets achieve nothing more than expensive team bonding sessions.

The Theatre of Corporate Learning

Here's what nobody wants to admit: most workplace training is elaborate theatre. We book fancy venues, hire slick presenters, and create elaborate feedback forms that make us feel productive. Meanwhile, your people return to their desks and immediately revert to exactly how they worked before.

I've been consulting on workplace communication training for over 15 years now. The pattern is always identical. Companies throw money at symptoms instead of addressing the real problems.

Your sales team struggles with objections? Send them to a generic sales course that teaches techniques they already know.

Managers can't handle difficult conversations? Book a one-day workshop that covers twenty different scenarios in forty-seven minutes each.

Customer service complaints rising? Obviously they need customer service training. Not better systems, clearer policies, or empowerment to actually solve problems.

The Real Culprits Nobody Talks About

Timing is Everything (And We Get It Wrong)

Most training happens when it's convenient for schedules, not when learning actually sticks. Tuesday afternoon after the monthly all-hands meeting? Perfect time to teach people about stress management. Right after they've been stressed about quarterly targets for three hours.

I once delivered a time management workshop to a team who'd just been told they're implementing a new CRM system next month. Guess what they were thinking about during my carefully crafted presentation on prioritisation techniques?

The Follow-Up Fantasy

Every training proposal includes impressive follow-up plans. Monthly check-ins! Refresher sessions! Ongoing support!

Reality check: 67% of companies never conduct a single follow-up session. Managers return to fighting fires, participants forget half the content within 48 hours, and that beautiful action plan becomes another forgotten document in someone's email folder.

I learned this the hard way in 2018 when I tracked actual implementation rates across twelve client companies. The results were embarrassing. For everyone involved.

Generic Solutions for Specific Problems

Brisbane's manufacturing sector has different communication challenges than Sydney's tech startups. Yet somehow we expect the same "Essential Leadership Skills" course to solve both environments.

This obsession with one-size-fits-all solutions drives me mental. It's like prescribing the same medication for headaches, broken bones, and relationship problems because they all cause discomfort.

Where We're Actually Burning Money

Death by PowerPoint (Still)

PowerPoint was revolutionary in 1995. It's 2025. Why are we still subjecting intelligent professionals to slide decks with bullet points about "synergistic paradigm shifts"?

The most effective negotiation skills training I ever delivered involved zero slides. Just real scenarios, actual practice, and immediate feedback. Revolutionary concept, I know.

Measuring the Wrong Things

"Did you enjoy the training?" Wrong question.

"Would you recommend this to colleagues?" Irrelevant.

"Rate the facilitator's presentation skills." Who cares?

Better questions: "What will you do differently next Monday?" "Which specific habit are you changing?" "What's stopping you from implementing this immediately?"

Satisfaction scores tell us nothing about behavioural change. Yet we obsess over them like they predict actual results.

The Motivation Myth

Here's an uncomfortable truth: you can't train motivation. You can't workshop enthusiasm. You can't PowerPoint people into caring about their jobs.

Motivation comes from meaningful work, fair compensation, competent leadership, and clear career paths. Not from inspirational quotes on slides with stock photos of people jumping off cliffs.

What Actually Works (The Boring Stuff Nobody Wants to Hear)

Just-in-Time Learning

The best training happens exactly when people need it. Not six months before. Not three weeks after. Right now, in the moment, when the learning solves an immediate problem.

Netflix figured this out years ago. Their customer service training happens during real customer interactions, with supervisors providing instant guidance. Simple. Effective. Impossible to ignore or forget.

Peer-to-Peer Transfer

Your best performers already know what works. Instead of hiring external experts, get them teaching others. It's cheaper, more relevant, and builds internal capability.

Plus, explaining concepts to colleagues forces people to understand material more deeply than passively listening to presentations.

Micro-Learning That Doesn't Suck

Forget week-long intensives. Five-minute daily practices beat eight-hour workshops every time. Consistency trumps intensity.

One Perth mining company I work with sends their supervisors a single communication tip every Tuesday morning. Ninety seconds to read, immediately applicable, reinforced through practice. Their incident reports dropped 34% in six months.

Simple works. But simple doesn't generate impressive training catalogues or justify large budgets.

The Uncomfortable Questions You Should Be Asking

Before booking that next training program, ask yourself:

What specific behaviour needs to change? Not "improve communication skills." What exactly will people do differently?

Why isn't this happening already? Usually the answer isn't lack of knowledge. It's systems, incentives, or leadership barriers.

How will we know it worked? And don't say "feedback forms." Real measures. Observable changes. Actual results.

Who's going to support implementation? Because without ongoing reinforcement, even brilliant training evaporates within weeks.

Stop Wasting Money on These Training Myths

Leadership "Soft Skills" Workshops

Leadership isn't soft. It's making difficult decisions, having uncomfortable conversations, and taking responsibility when things go wrong. Role-playing exercises with flip charts don't prepare people for real leadership challenges.

Team Building Adventures

Trust isn't built falling backwards into someone's arms. It's built through consistent competence, honest communication, and shared victories over real challenges. Save the money and tackle an actual project together.

Generic Diversity Training

Lecturing people about bias for half a day doesn't change hearts and minds. Creating inclusive systems, diverse hiring practices, and psychological safety does. Much harder. Much more effective.

The Training That's Actually Worth Your Money

Anything that involves real practice with real consequences. Simulations that hurt when you fail. Scenarios pulled from your actual workplace. Problems your people face every day.

Emotional intelligence training works when it addresses specific relationship challenges within your team. Generic EQ workshops are expensive therapy sessions.

Technical skills training works because the application is immediate and obvious. People learn Excel formulas because they need them next Tuesday, not because they might be useful someday.

What I'd Do With Your Training Budget Instead

First, I'd cut it in half. Seriously.

Then I'd spend that money on:

Better hiring processes that get the right people first time
Management coaching for your existing leaders
Systems improvements that make good performance easier
Clear performance standards and regular feedback

Most training problems are actually management problems in disguise.

The best companies I work with barely need external training because they've built learning into daily operations. New challenges become growth opportunities. Mistakes become teaching moments. Excellence becomes habitual.

But that requires fundamentally different thinking about how people develop capabilities. And most executives aren't ready for that conversation yet.

Which is why training budgets will keep getting wasted on feel-good initiatives that change nothing substantial. And consultants like me will keep getting paid to point out the obvious.

At least the coffee's usually decent.

Looking for training that actually delivers results? Focus on specific, measurable behaviour change rather than generic skill development. Your people—and your budget—will thank you.