Training has become broccoli 🥦🥦

Say “We have training today” in an office or tell a child “We have broccoli today for dinner today” and you’ll get EXACTLY the same reaction…

Eyes roll, people groan, and someone might say, “Do we really have to?!”

Both are things you endure, not something that you look forward to.

Why does training have such a bad rep?

Because it has become compulsory, generic, and disconnected.

1. Compulsory

   L&D teams chase completion rates like their life depends on it (Because sometimes it actually does!). We bombard our learners with reminder emails, and sometimes even call them if they haven’t joined a session.

2. Generic

   When all trainings look the same, there is no excitement to attend it. Imagine watching the same movie over and over again - there is no way you will look forward to it.

3. Disconnected

   Training is a once-and-done event. Learners perceive it as a waste of time or a mini-break from work because they end up going back and doing things exactly the same way.

So what can L&Ds do?

1/ Find another word for training in your head. Think support, help, tool, or problem-solving. Using different vocabulary rewires our brains to think differently.

2/ Stop defaulting to what you know of training. Stop making it compulsory, generic, and disconnected.

3/ And finally, think about training from a first-principles lens. Training doesn’t have to mean a session or a course. It could be:

• A simple template that saves 3 hours of work

• An AI prompt that someone uses every day

• A way to connect with mentors and coaches

Just like broccoli, training also needs a little bit of creativity to make it more palpable.

The word training might be too far gone to save. But the idea behind it - helping people get better at their word is definitely worth saving.

It’s time to save the broccoli. 🥦