Not every performance problem is a training problem. Some of the most expensive mistakes in L&D come from skipping that question.
Not every problem needs training — and not every pilot should scale.
A sales team keeps missing targets, and the fix that gets approved is a sales skills workshop. A branch keeps having customer complaints, and the fix that gets approved is a customer service training. In both cases, everyone feels like they did something. Six months later, the numbers haven’t moved, because the actual problem was never a skill gap.
The three questions nobody asks before booking a workshop
Before approving any training investment, three questions deserve an honest answer:
- Do the people involved actually know how to do the thing correctly — or do they know, but something stops them from doing it?
- Is the obstacle a skill gap, or is it workload, unclear priorities, a broken process, a missing tool, or an incentive that rewards the wrong behavior?
- If you trained everyone perfectly tomorrow, would the business result actually change — or would the same obstacle still be there?
If the honest answer to question two points at workload, process, or incentives, training will not fix it. It will just make everyone feel busier while the real problem stays exactly where it was.
A quick way to tell the difference
Ask this about the specific behavior you want to see more of: if I stood behind that person while they did the task, would I see them make an actual skill mistake — or would I see them do it correctly, slower than they should, because something in their day is working against them?
- A manager who doesn’t know how to run a hard conversation: skill gap. Training helps.
- A manager who knows exactly how to run a hard conversation but has six of them stacked in one afternoon with no time to prepare: workload and calendar problem. Training will not fix that.
- A branch team that hasn’t been shown how to handle an escalation: skill gap. Training helps.
- A branch team that knows the escalation process but has no authority to actually resolve it without three layers of approval: process problem. Training will not fix that either.
Why this is worth the extra diagnostic step
A diagnostic before a program costs time and a bit of executive patience. Skipping it costs a full training budget spent on the wrong fix, plus the credibility hit when the numbers don’t move and leadership starts to doubt every future people investment.
The fastest way to lose the trust to run future programs is to run one that was never going to work, because it targeted the wrong cause.
A question worth sitting with before your next program is approved
If you rolled out this training and the underlying obstacle — workload, process, or incentive — stayed exactly the same, would the result you want actually change?
If the honest answer is “probably not,” that’s worth a real conversation before the budget is spent. Message Jordan if you’d like a second opinion on whether your next problem is actually a training problem or something else entirely.
Further reading on jordanimutan.com:
• How to Improve Manager Performance in 90 Days — https://jordanimutan.com/2026/08/21/how-to-improve-manager-performance-in-90-days-stop-training-for-attendance-and-start-training-for-behavior/
• AI Was Supposed to Save Your Managers Time. It Didn’t. — https://jordanimutan.com/2026/09/03/ai-was-supposed-to-save-your-managers-time-it-didnt/
#LeadershipDevelopment #TrainingROI #PeopleStrategy #HRLeadership #PerformanceDiagnostics
