In today’s fast-moving world, training that doesn’t lead to action is just noise. The best programs don’t stop at good ideas — they drive real behavior change and spark ideas managers can use right away. Want impact? Make it relevant, practical and impossible to ignore. 

From COVID to tariffs, the challenges facing businesses the past few years have affected bottom lines across the country — and investment in learning and development opportunities has suffered, too. But according to a leadership survey, that investment is what helps set high-performing companies apart.  

So, what factors distinguish effective from ineffective leadership development programs? Relevance, timeliness and ease of application are all attributes of an investment-worthy training program for your managers. Ultimately, though, the successful end result should be a change in behavior. 

Practical magic

You can’t achieve a behavior change through good attendance alone — success stems from practical application. To inspire true growth, managers should be able to easily apply what they learn to their day-to-day roles. What a wasted investment for leaders to attend a training session then go back to work like nothing happened!   

Here are three tips to ensure effective application:

1. Connect all training to your company’s bigger picture. Any development program should be connected to what’s going on in the business. Create direct ties to the organization’s strategic priorities, mission, vision and values, and contextualize material by explicitly sharing the “why.” When people understand how applying what they’ve learned supports the future direction of the company, they’ll be more likely to sustain the behavior change. 
2. Engage senior leaders. When leaders across all levels of the business show support for and encourage the application of learning, teams experience longer-lasting results. Intentional check-ins between managers and their direct leaders increase accountability, and executive buy-in is critical to sustainability.   
3. Pivot as needed. Application means experimenting to determine what works and what doesn’t. If you’re not seeing the desired behavior change, despite making connections and increasing accountability, it’s time to reevaluate. Trying to force something that’s unsuccessful will result in frustration. Talk to your managers about the application pain points and make adjustments as needed.   

How we know it works

At KWI, we’ve created and implemented customized training curricula centered around practical application for our clients. As part of our Leadership Enablement Program: 

• Learners create a personalized action plan at the completion of each module and are encouraged to identify ways to implement concepts in their roles.  
• Each learner’s direct leader receives a recap of what concepts were taught, as well as a conversation guide to facilitate accountability during ongoing check-ins. These one-on-ones provide the opportunity for learners to share what’s working and what’s not and give leaders insight to better support their teams.

We’ve seen our programs power both individual and organizational success. In facilitating a recent development program with one of our clients, 94% of participants agreed the Leadership Development Program was applicable to their jobs, achieving a learning transfer score of 9.3 out of 10 —staggering compared to the 1.2 industry average as determined by Harvard Business Review. 

We heard direct feedback that reinforced program success: “I’ve been in leadership for 20 years, and this is far and away the best leader course I’ve ever had. Facilitators are outstanding and hold my attention. Coursework is presented in a way I can apply immediately to my job. I really look forward to these meetings.” 

Our learning and development experts are passionate about creating programs that empower teams for lasting impact. Interested in learning more? Email us at info@kwicomm.com.