A few years ago, I worked with a senior leader whose organisation was facing what many would describe as a performance crisis. Targets were being missed, the team was disengaged, and decisions were slow, often revisited, and sometimes avoided altogether. The instinctive response was predictable: more training. More frameworks. More tools.

Training doesn’t fix performance. Leadership does.
 

There are moments in training that stay with you—not because they were planned, but because of what they reveal about learning. One such moment unfolded during a three-day program I was facilitating.

Recently, I observed a trainer conducting a two-day training. Even before the session began, I was curious to see how participation would unfold.

Let Them Discover the Boxes: A Small Shift That Changes Learning

Last week, while observing a mock training session for content review, I witnessed a small facilitation move with significant learning implications.

عندما نسمع كلمة “قيادة”، غالباً ما نفكر في رئيس تنفيذي، أو وزير، أو مدير عام.
نادراً ما نفكر في مدرب يقف أمام مجموعة في قاعة تدريب.

لكن الحقيقة التي تعلمتها عبر سنوات من العمل مع بنوك، وزارات، مجالس إدارة، ومنظمات مختلفة، هي أن من أكثر أماكن القيادة وضوحاً وتأثيراً هي قاعة التدريب.

When people hear the word leadership, they usually imagine a CEO, a minister, a general, or a board chair. Rarely do they think of a trainer standing in front of a group with a flip chart marker in hand.

What actually happens in your breakout rooms once you click ‘Open’? Silence? Confusion? One person doing all the talking? Or real learning? Breakout rooms are not off-stage time. They’re where online learning either comes alive… or quietly dies.

Training is more than just delivering content—it comes with its own set of challenges. Watch Adeola Babatunde discuss her experiences, the difficulties she has encountered, and the solutions she has come up with. 

What if the hiring managers have one idea for their staff training needs, but the participants demonstrate completely different needs? How can trainers reconcile those needs? How do trainers make sure that the training they offer goes to the heart of the problem that the hiring managers are trying to solve?