Training Is Behaviour Change, Not Attendance

Editor’s note: This essay sits within Cultivated’s wider work on learning as a system — not an event — and why behaviour change, not activity, is the true measure of progress.

Training Is Behaviour Change, Not Attendance

If someone attends a training course and returns to work exactly as they did before, was that money well spent?

Was it effective training — or just awareness?

I’d argue it’s a clear no – to training.

We confuse exposure with transformation and learning.

Being told something is not the same as being changed by it.

Much of what organisations call “training” is really information transfer. People leave knowing more, but doing nothing differently. The organisation gains a sense of motion, but not improvement.

Real training is not about what people know.

It is about what they now do.

Awareness is not learning

Making people aware of new technology, compliance rules, or management methods has value.

But awareness is not training.

Training earns its name only when it shifts behaviour — when people begin to work differently, better, more confidently, more effectively.

If nothing changes, the organisation has not learned.

It has merely consumed content.

Managers must lead learning

In many organisations, learning is treated as an HR responsibility alone.

Courses are procured. Platforms are rolled out. Attendance is tracked.
The organisation feels busy developing its people.

But learning does not live in catalogues.

It lives in teams.

Managers see performance daily. They understand capability gaps, emerging needs, future demands. They are closest to the work — and therefore closest to where learning must land.

HR should enable learning.

Managers must direct it.

When responsibility for development is detached from the work itself, training becomes generic, abstract, and easy to ignore.

The problem with generic training

Most organisations follow a familiar pattern:

Managers are rarely consulted on what learning is actually needed.
Courses are selected centrally.
The same programmes are repeated year after year.
Attendance is high.
Behaviour barely shifts.

Time, money, and goodwill are quietly wasted.

Managers know where work struggles.

They know which behaviours matter next.

Without their guidance, training drifts away from reality.

Six principles for training that actually works

What follows is not theory. It is practice.

These principles come from years of watching what changes behaviour — and what merely decorates strategy decks.

1. On-the-job learning beats the classroom

The most powerful learning happens in the work itself.

Learning from experienced colleagues:

Builds judgement, not just knowledge.
Creates natural mentoring and role modelling.
Reduces single points of failure.
Strengthens succession.

Context matters. People learn fastest when new skills are applied immediately to real problems.

2. Every person needs a living coaching plan

Development should not be abstract.

Each person should have a coaching plan shaped by:

Observed strengths and weaknesses,
Role requirements,
Future needs.

This plan blends:

Practice in real work,
Coaching and mentoring,
Targeted reading and courses.

Generic training rarely changes behaviour. Personalised development often does.

3. Pull learning from real problems

The most powerful training is pulled by need, not pushed by policy.

When learning is driven by real challenges:

Relevance rises.
Engagement increases.
Transfer into practice improves.

The right question is not “What courses should we run?”

It is “What must our people need to know, or do better, next month?”

4. HR and managers must work as partners

This is not a turf war.

HR brings scale, platforms, budget, expertise.

Managers bring context, judgement, direction.

Together they can design learning that is both professional and practical.

Separated, learning becomes either well-produced but irrelevant — or relevant but unsupported.

5. Combine knowledge with practice

Learning requires two different processes:

Information acquisition — reading, courses, videos.
Task acquisition — applying skills in real work.

Understanding without application rarely survives contact with reality.

Practice is where knowledge becomes capability.

6. Managers must stay involved after the course ends

Training is not an event.

Managers must observe, reinforce, adjust, and support.
Without this, behaviour drifts back to default patterns.

Sustained change requires sustained attention.

A quieter definition of training

Effective training is not about courses completed.

It is about people becoming more capable in the work that matters.

If behaviour has not changed, it's likely learning has not occurred.

Attendance is easy to measure.
Capability is harder — and far more valuable.

Real training is not theatre.
It is transformation.

And organisations that understand this stop buying learning — and start building it.