@terrabolton
Profile
Registered: 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Using Professional Development to Stay Ahead in a Competitive Job Market
Professional Development Training: The Uncomfortable Truth About What Really Works
Picture this: costly leadership course, room full of executives, and half the audience is mentally somewhere else. Honestly, I don't blame him. The trainer kept using jargon that would make a corporate consultant blush. Having spent over two decades in the professional development business from Perth to the Gold Coast, I've seen this same old formula repeated everywhere from manufacturing plants in Adelaide to creative agencies in Fitzroy.
Here's what genuinely gets my goat: we're spending billions on professional development that doesn't develop anything except the trainer's bank balance.
Training companies have the entire process back to front. It begins with what looks good in a brochure instead of what actually solves workplace problems. I cannot count how many times I've seen HR departments excited about their elaborate training curriculum while watching their top talent head for the exit.
Want to know something that'll make you sick? Nearly all professional development spending might as well be flushed down the toilet. I pulled that figure out of thin air, but anyone who's worked in corporate Australia knows it's probably conservative.
There's this operations manager I know, Sarah, sharp woman in the freight industry. Sharp operations manager, 15 years experience, could solve problems that would make your head spin. They invested big money sending her to a cookie-cutter management course. The content was generic corporate speak that had nothing to do with managing freight routes or dealing with tricky clients. Sarah came back more frustrated than when she left.
The core issue? Learning has become mass production.
We've turned workplace learning into fast food - fast, low-cost, and ultimately unsatisfying. The same generic material gets rolled out to construction supervisors and banking executives. Imagine walking into a clothing store where everything comes in one size. Sometimes it works. Usually it doesn't.
The second issue is timing. Nearly all professional development happens when it's convenient for the business calendar, not when people are ready to learn or facing specific challenges. We bundle people into courses based on their job title rather than their real development needs.
I remember working with a manufacturing company in Geelong where they insisted on putting all their supervisors through communication training at the same time. Some of these guys 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 most 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 completely wrong when it comes to people stuff. PowerPoint presentations don't create better managers any more than recipe books create master chefs. Imagine learning to play cricket by studying the rule book.
The best development happens when you're knee-deep in actual workplace challenges. My best successful programs put people to work on issues they were genuinely struggling with. Forget theoretical scenarios and paid actors pretending to be difficult customers. Real stuff that mattered to their business results.
L&D departments hate this because you can't put it in a neat spreadsheet. Everyone wants measurable outcomes and completion certificates. 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. My programs are built around the specific challenges your people face in your particular industry with your particular constraints.
Take feedback skills, for example. Most companies assume their leaders are terrible at performance discussions. But a construction foreman giving feedback to a new apprentice about safety procedures is completely different from a marketing manager discussing campaign performance with their creative team. Completely different power dynamics, relationships, and ways of talking.
Problem three: what happens after training? Absolutely nothing.
Development finishes when the Zoom call ends. Zero follow-through, zero support, zero chance of lasting change. Imagine having one tennis lesson and expecting to play Wimbledon.
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 know how to facilitate workshops and design learning materials. They know adult learning theory and can design engaging workshops. Most have never faced an angry customer, missed a deadline that mattered, or had to let someone go.
The gap becomes obvious when you try to apply textbook solutions to real workplace problems. Actual work life is chaotic and unpredictable in ways that training rarely addresses.
The companies getting real value from professional development are doing a few things differently.
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. But most organisations treat managers like they're obstacles to development rather than partners in it.
Third, they're measuring behaviour change, not satisfaction scores. 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.
Traditional training isn't completely worthless. Hands-on technical training delivers results when it's properly structured. Health and safety programs genuinely protect people. Compliance training keeps you out of legal trouble.
Interpersonal development - the stuff most companies desperately lack - demands an entirely new method.
Tomorrow's workplace learning will resemble traditional trades training more than corporate seminars. Learning through hands-on experience with coaching support and increasing responsibility.
You have to acknowledge that growth is unpredictable, unique to each person, and can't be rushed. It means investing in managers who can coach rather than just manage. It means measuring results that matter rather than activities that are easy to count.
Too many businesses avoid this transition because it forces them to confront the failure of their current programs. Scheduling another seminar feels safer than overhauling your entire approach.
Organisations that crack this code will leave their competitors in the dust. They'll develop people faster, retain talent longer, and get better business results from their development investment.
Meanwhile, other organisations will keep throwing money at programs that change nothing.
Your call.
Website: https://integritystore.bigcartel.com/product/handling-office-politics-training-course-perth
Forums
Topics Started: 0
Replies Created: 0
Forum Role: Participant