Training Cannot Fix a Broken Workflow

Someone says people are not following the process. Errors are increasing. A new policy is being ignored. Training becomes the first proposed fix because it is visible, familiar, and easy to assign. But a request for training is not proof of a learning gap. It is only proof that someone wants behavior to change. The cause could be knowledge. It could also be a clumsy tool, conflicting priorities, missing access, poor reinforcement, or a process that makes the right action harder than the wrong one.

01Name the problem

Someone says people are not following the process. Errors are increasing. A new policy is being ignored. Training becomes the first proposed fix because it is visible, familiar, and easy to assign. But a request for training is not proof of a learning gap. It is only proof that someone wants behavior to change. The cause could be knowledge. It could also be a clumsy tool, conflicting priorities, missing access, poor reinforcement, or a process that makes the right action harder than the wrong one.

02Look at the real work

The useful question is not what the course should cover. It is what happens when the person tries to do the work. Can they find the right information? Do they have permission to act? Does the system show the next step? Are they rewarded for speed while being told to slow down? Do experienced performers use a workaround that the official process ignores? These questions move the conversation from content to conditions.

When capable people keep failing in the same place, investigate the system before assigning another course.

03Choose the right response

Training earns its place when people need a mental model, a skill, a decision pattern, or safe practice before the real moment arrives. It is weaker when success depends on remembering a changing list, navigating a confusing interface, waiting for approval, or overcoming incentives that point in the opposite direction.

04Protect the learner

Bad systems quietly transfer their burden to employees. People are told to remember more, pay closer attention, or complete another refresher because the organization has not repaired the environment. That sucks for learners, and completion data will not repair it. A designer who identifies the non-learning parts of the problem is doing the most valuable part of the work.

05Make the decision visible

Before accepting the next training request, map one real attempt at the work. Find the point where performance breaks. Ask what the person knows, sees, can access, and is rewarded for at that moment. Build learning for the part practice can improve. Redesign the rest around the behavior you need.