Bernadette Boas argues that corporate training wastes $100 billion a year on isolated courses and workshops because they ignore the real problem: people don't change behavior unless they first see their own blind spots. Box-checking training treats skill gaps as knowledge gaps, not self-awareness gaps.
Chapters
Most organizations have built their development infrastructure around discrete events, a course here, a workshop there, an assessment when someone gets promoted. That model was never designed to produce lasting behavioral change. It was designed to check the boxes. So how do we make that $100 billion that corporations are spending on workplace training? How do we make it efficient, effective, and transformative? Well, let's start with why the current model fails. Reason 1 is training is often built on a perceived lack of skill versus a lack of self-awareness. And this one's big for me because again, throughout my 18 years, the number 1 roadblock for many professionals is their own lack of self-awareness. Let me explain this even further. Someone could walk into a training session that you have planned. And they have all great intentions to be active, to contribute, uh, to ask questions. However, if they're not fully aware that this skill set that you're training them on is relevant to them, is a gap for them, a blind spot for them, or even an opportunity for them to focus on and improve, then they're just going to be sitting there taking up a seat because that information that comes is not going to stick.
