Whenever someone tells me, “But this is global HR best practice,” I am tempted to ask:

Best practice for whom?

For which industry? Which country? Which workforce? Which culture? Which labour market? Which business strategy?

“Do you already have a course on this?”

I have been asked that question more times than I care to remember. A client identifies a problem, decides that training is the answer and then approaches the Learning and Development professional with what appears to be a perfectly reasonable request: “Do you already have the course?”

The workshop was excellent. The facilitator was engaging, the participants were enthusiastic, the evaluations were glowing and everybody left with a certificate. Three months later, however, very little has changed at work.

Does that sound familiar?

We spend a great deal of time talking about L&D departments, training budgets, learning platforms, facilitators and programmes.

But one of the most powerful influences on whether people actually develop at work may be sitting much closer to them.

Their manager.

A CEO does not need to know how to design a learning programme, choose a facilitator or debate instructional methodology. But a CEO should know something far more important:

Is this organisation building the capability its strategy depends on?

Every so often, a facilitator asks me a question that sounds simple until you begin unpacking it: “Margaret, what is really the difference between a session recap and key takeaways? Aren’t they basically the same thing?”