Ever wonder why Olympic athletes don’t rely on short training and workshops to reach the top? They don’t just show up, take a class, and expect to win gold. Instead, they commit to years of rigorous training, coaching, and practice. The truth is that achieving success—whether in sports or in your nonprofit team—requires more than a one-off effort.
This year alone, I’ve spoken with numerous learning and development directors who shared a common frustration: despite investing in training, nothing seems to change. Just like an athlete who dreams of gold but skips the daily grind, organizations that rely on a single workshop to solve deep-rooted problems are bound to be disappointed. So, how can you make sure your training “sticks” and leads to real behavior change? Let’s dive in.
The Pitfall of One-Time Workshops
Here’s what often happens:
A department leader identifies a problem and decides that training is the solution. They reach out to their L&D or HR department, which finds a consultant to conduct a workshop. The training happens, but a few weeks later, nothing has changed. The same problems persist. Sound familiar?
This scenario is all too common. Many organizations hope that a single workshop will result in actual behavior change. But as I’ve learned over the years, one-time workshops rarely lead to lasting improvement.
Does Training Even Work?
Absolutely—training can work. But for it to stick, it must be reinforced, applied, and monitored over time. When someone approaches me with a version of this story, I ask them these three critical questions:
- What did you do to reinforce the learning after the workshop?
- How did you help people apply the skills in real-world situations?
- What did you measure before and after the workshop to evaluate whether learning happened and behavior changed?
These questions often leave people at a loss. The truth is that training is unlikely to result in long-term change without reinforcement, application, and measurement.
The Importance of Reinforcement in Training
Over the past few years, I’ve been asked to conduct one-time workshops on topics like improving communication, giving and receiving feedback, strengthening decision-making, and more. While these workshops can be valuable, they rarely lead to sustained behavior change without ongoing reinforcement.
That’s why I’ve shifted my approach. I rarely offer one-time workshops. Instead, I now work with teams over a 6–12-month period so we can focus our attention on multiple aspects of the problem they want to solve. This gives us time to help teams build new skills and make sure that they are reinforced and applied over time.
What Actually Works? A Step-by-Step Approach
1. Be Clear on the Problem You Want to Solve
Before diving into training, it’s essential to identify the specific problem you want to address. Ask managers and department leaders to list the top three areas for improvement that are most likely to cascade into other beneficial changes.
2. Assess Organizational Performance and Staff Contributions
Gather insights from both leaders and staff about their strengths, areas for improvement, and what’s holding them back. These insights can help identify the underlying causes of the problems and guide the development of effective solutions.
3. Set Realistic Goals and Objectives
The more complex the problem, the less impact a single training session will have. Set realistic goals that align with organizational objectives and prioritize long-term change over quick fixes.
4. Measure Progress
It’s crucial to have a way to track progress over time. Use before-and-after surveys, feedback mechanisms, and observations to evaluate the effectiveness of the training and the extent to which behavior has changed.
5. Give It Time to Work
Change doesn’t happen overnight. Just as problems don’t develop overnight, they also won’t be resolved overnight. Successful training programs require a long-term commitment to reinforcing new habits and behaviors.
Olympic Lessons: The Power of Consistent Practice and Reinforcement
The recent Olympics serve as a powerful reminder of the value of consistent practice and reinforcement. Olympic athletes don’t rely on one-time workshops to improve their performance. Instead, they engage in rigorous training, guided by coaches who hold them accountable, and they continually refine their skills through practice.
This same principle applies to organizational training. Real behavior change requires ongoing practice, coaching, and reinforcement.
The Path to Lasting Change: A Six–to–Twelve-Month Commitment
That’s why I’ve begun working with nonprofit teams for a minimum of six months and more often a year. Transformation takes time, and organizations need at least six months to see measurable, visible differences in behavior and performance. Sustaining the changes takes even longer.
Why a Year?
- New habits and behaviors take time to become automatic.
- Change is hard and requires support and encouragement.
- The brain needs structure and repetition to adapt to new ways of working.
- Teams need time to mature and strengthen their skills.
- Short-term successes need reinforcement to stick over the long term.
- We can’t change too many things at once; incremental progress is key.
Bottom Line: Make Your Training and Transformation Stick
If you want your training outcomes to include real, lasting transformational change, it’s essential to move beyond one-time workshops.
Give your teams a chance by reinforcing the learning, helping them apply their new skills to real-world scenarios, and helping them implement over time, measuring the results as you go.
By committing to a longer-term approach, you can be confident that your training will stick and lead to meaningful transformation and real impact and improvements in your organization.
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Definetly a gold medal article!
Won by a seasoned athlete in her infinite pursuit in support of individual, team and organizational greatness through skilled facilitation, training and high engagement.