If you asked your delegates to write down “My job is…”, what would you get? Most would list tasks: emails, reports, calls, systems. Fewer could tell you the bigger outcomes those tasks are meant to create, especially when the organisation is shifting around them.
That matters for learning transfer. People apply training when they can see how a new skill helps them achieve a result they care about, not just tick off another activity. When the outcome is fuzzy, or the role is in flux, it is rational to park new ideas for ‘later’ or wait for someone to redraw the org chart.
So before we obsess over content design, ask a simpler question: do your trainees know what success really looks like in their role over the next few months?
This week, you could:
• Ask them to write down “My job is…”
• Then ask, “If you did your job brilliantly, what would improve for customers, colleagues, or the business?”
• Then ask, “What do you think your manager would write if I asked them the same question about your job?”
• Then ask, “In the next 90 days, what do you need to get right?”
Collect 3–5 real and critical tasks from the group, and keep looping back to them in relation to your course content.
If I shadowed your next programme, would I see people practising for a real job they recognise – or for a role that only exists in the slide deck?
