603 The Best Training Is No Training
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Wednesday, March 27
Management and Strategy
Salon 4
Why do organizations train, and why do they train so much? Simple questions; complex answers. Despite all the L&D industry knows about performance improvement, people still tend to throw training at problems, or accept client requests for courses even before they know why. And, too often, the courseware doesn’t even work. This isn’t because the training is necessarily bad, but because people shouldn’t have done as much of it in the first place. Organizations train to compensate for bad documentation or teach workarounds to bad processes. They train to fix culture and morale problems. They train to meet compliance requirements and then report attendance over competency. They train repeatedly to be sure everyone “gets it.” They train to “CYA.”
What must you learn from all this? How about “less is more.” In this session, you’ll learn why, in many cases, training should be the last resort—not the first. You’ll learn how to eliminate the need for training, recognizing that in some cases training is a symptom of dysfunction, not its solution. With a focus on process, leadership, and new technologies, this strategic session will look at several key principles that can reduce the need for training but improve performance significantly. This isn’t the end of training by any means, but a major rethinking of its role in performance improvement and a key to your professional growth.
In this session, you will learn:
- Why training matters less
- Why training is not a universal band-aid
- Why more technology isn’t always better
- Why training should be the last alternative, not the first
- Why increased proficiency is inversely proportional to more training
- Why getting closer to work means getting farther from training
Audience:
Designers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Marc Rosenberg
President
Marc Rosenberg and Associates
Marc Rosenberg is a leading authority and author in training, organizational learning, eLearning, knowledge management, and performance improvement. He has written two best-selling books, E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age and Beyond E-Learning: Approaches and Technologies to Enhance Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Performance. “Marc My Words,” his collection of over 100 columns from 2010 through 2018, is archived online in The eLearning Guild’s magazine Learning Solutions. Marc is past president and honorary life member of the International Society for Performance Improvement, has spoken at the White House, debated eLearning’s future at Oxford University, authored over 50 articles, and is frequently quoted in major trade publications. Marc was awarded the Guild Master Award in 2013 for his accomplishments and contributions to the eLearning community.