When you say to the business, for example, “Next week we will be working on organizing a two-day training for 10 managers on soft skills to help them communicate effectively with their team,”
Business hears: “We have a great idea. We’ll spend 25% of our team’s monthly salary to stop 50% of our highest-paid managers from working for two days, just so they can listen to a lecture they will forget within a month.”
This dramatic difference between what you said and what the business hears is because you are an expert in your field. You know that to achieve a result, certain work has to be done. It’s a series of tasks performed professionally – simply put, it’s a process. The process leads to results.
Business doesn’t think this way. For them, a process is work. First, work may not lead to any result – just look at the value that bureaucracy adds. Second, business doesn’t know your processes or the results they usually produce. What business does understand is how much you earn, how much your team earns, what two days of training mean in terms of salary, and how much work the managers have.
They also know that they’ve been to training themselves a few times, and it was a fun experience. They don’t remember much of it, and if they were to be honest, they’d say that training is like “Fruit Thursday” and “yoga sessions,” which are more about wellbeing than development leading directly to better business results.
Business wants efficient leaders, effective managers, and productive, cohesive teams.
Of course, they want that. They desperately need it. I’ve never met top management that, in a moment of honesty, said their managers are top-notch, their leaders are crushing it, and their teams are outperforming the competition. Most people, in private, say things like: “You know, our leaders aren’t really that great,” or “We don’t have a great team, we’ve just got some people who ended up here by chance,” or “I’m not happy with it. There are a few good ones, but the rest are average.”
Business wants it. Needs it. Badly. But training doesn’t automatically lead to better results. Business knows this intuitively, but the truth is that science leaves no room for doubt. Out of 20 people, 1 or 2 might apply the knowledge in practice. The rest will just listen to the lecture, drink coffee, eat a cookie, and return to their urgent tasks, their overflowing inboxes, and their routines. No progress. No change. 98% of knowledge will disappear 9 months after the training, and 70% will be gone after 30 days.
So, what are we really talking about here? From this perspective, training – especially soft skills – is pure entertainment under the guise of increasing productivity. To make it work, training should be repeated throughout the year for as many people as possible. But let’s put that topic aside for now.
What can HR say instead of “Next week we will be working on organizing a two-day training for 10 managers on soft skills to help them communicate effectively with their team” so that the information sounds like a “result” to the business?
For example: “We’ll use AI to practically teach all of our employees how to communicate effectively despite personality and cultural differences. We’ll do this with no operational costs, no work interruptions, the implementation will take 1 hour, and it will cost 80% less per employee compared to traditional solutions used by our competitors. The support will last all year. We can expect up to a 12% productivity increase across the company, and 30x better retention of knowledge. This will give us a competitive edge. Progress will be measured 3 times a year – automatically and at no cost.”
Empatyzer – next-generation training designed with business (and you) in mind.
