A request for training is a proposed solution, not a diagnosis. When a team misses a target, a course may help. It may also leave the actual barrier untouched. The first responsibility of an L&D or business leader is to identify what prevents the required performance.
Start with the business outcome
Specify the result that is falling short. Use a measure the business already understands, such as rework, service quality, processing time, safety or customer outcomes. Define the gap between current and required performance and identify the people and work involved.
Observe the work before selecting an intervention
Ask what capable performance looks like, when it happens, and what conditions enable it. Compare the workflow of people who consistently meet the standard with those who struggle. Look for missing information, unclear decisions, broken handoffs, tools, time, authority, feedback and incentives before attributing the gap to skill.
Use six decisions to avoid the course-first reflex
- Business outcome: What result needs to change?
- Constraint: What is preventing it?
- Work: Which actions and decisions produce the result?
- Intervention: What combination of changes removes the constraint?
- Governance: Who owns implementation and ongoing performance?
- Evidence: How will we know the change worked?
When is training the right answer?
Training is warranted when the work requires a learnable capability that is absent or inconsistent, and employees will have a realistic opportunity to apply it. If the cause is a system defect, policy conflict or resource constraint, fix that cause directly. Some problems require both learning and operational changes.
What should the business receive?
The diagnostic should produce a clear problem statement, evidence of the root constraints, recommended actions, owners, a feasible implementation plan and success measures. A training request should not become an approved course merely because it arrived through an L&D intake form.
Read Stop Treating Every Performance Problem as a Training Problem for further context. For organizational advisory support, see CATALYST Learning & Strategy.
If you are evaluating a workforce capability or learning investment decision, describe the decision in a consultation enquiry.
By Ravinder Tulsiani, DBA. Related book: Solve the Right Problem.
