Why Training Doesn't Work
Companies spend $380 billion annually on training. Only 10-30% transfers to the job. The issue isn't learning. It's that old environments trigger old habits.
The corporate training industry is worth $380 billion. The transfer rate is somewhere between 10% and 30%. That means at best, for every dollar spent on training, seventy cents evaporates within weeks.
This isn't a content problem. The workshops are often good. The facilitators are skilled. People leave energized and full of intentions. Then they return to the same desk, the same inbox, the same meetings, the same manager. And within 30 days, behavior reverts to baseline.
The mechanism is transfer decay. Training creates knowledge in a controlled context. But old environments trigger old habits. The cue-routine-reward loop of the workplace is stronger than two days of inspiration. Without redesigning the environment people return to, you're pouring water into a bucket with no bottom.
The reframe: Before approving any training program, ask the vendor one question: "What happens in the 30 days after?" If the answer is "nothing," redirect the budget. Spend half on the training and half on post-training environmental support: manager coaching, peer accountability pairs, workflow redesign. The learning isn't the bottleneck. The context is.
