“Gentlemen, this is a football”
With this phrase, and pointing to a football, Vince Lombardi – one of the most extraordinary coaches of all time – would always start the team’s training season.
And he continued, “This ball must be thrown beyond the end line of the opponent’s field.”
The message was obviously a reminder that, beyond the thousands of activities that can take place on a football pitch, and beyond all the intricacies of rules and federations, the fundamental essence of football and its purpose is a ball that has to be thrown somewhere.
And that, if this essence is lost sight of, all the ancillary activities (from strategic plans of attack to training techniques, to the organization of championships, to the color of uniforms, to the hierarchy of the federation, to cheerleading, to sponsors, to the public, to the sale of drinks in the stadium and so on) lose all meaning.

Getting people to pinpoint the fundamental mechanisms of their activity and then identifying what is the corresponding essence (which I very pompously call the “Critical Success Factor”) is one of my favorite exercises in the training room, and it is extraordinary – even if somewhat sad – to see people who have been in a job for years understand for the first time what the meaning of what they do in that job is and where to focus attention to improve results.
And it has become automatic for me to ask myself, in everything I do: “What is the meaning? What is the critical factor? What exactly does ‘success’ mean in this work?”

The secret to successful training

So, if we are talking about training here, I inevitably ask myself “What is the essence? What is the critical factor? What is ‘successful’ training?”

It would be interesting to do a survey on this topic among trainers, and I would even advise you to give an answer before I tell you what I think.
At some point, if we are in the training business, we are probably all very caught up with trendy theories, licenses, diplomas, certifications, authority approvals, powerpoint slides, exercises to invent, team building activities, looking for clients, looking for rooms, looking for contracts… the list could go on and on.

But where is the essence of training, its meaning? What is the “ball”?

Are we transmitting information? But the world is surrounded, bombarded, saturated with more or less useful information. Why add our voice to the information noise?
Or do we teach “techniques”, teach skills, perhaps with “experiential exercises”? But the world is already overloaded with “techniques” and we all know that being able to do a thing doesn’t necessarily mean doing it. In fact, the complaint I hear most often is “I know perfectly well what I should do, I would be perfectly able to do it, but even if it were in my best interest, I don’t do it”.
We may think that the success of a training is achieved if the trainees “learn” something new. That gets closer to the essence, but the inevitable question will be “When do people actually learn something?”
When do they receive new information? When do they remember what the trainer said? When do they know how to do all the exercises that were presented? This would be a start, but of course it is not enough.

And we come to the crux of the matter: There’s no learning in any field unless there’s a change in behavior somewhere.

Therefore, the only measure of the success of a training, its essence, the “ball over the line”, is the fact that people, after the training, show a change of behavior in the desired direction.
So, regardless of how enjoyable and appreciated a training was, how well directed and impactful the presentations were, how wonderful the theories were, how interesting the exercises were… well, if the trainees’ personal or professional behavior remains the same afterwards, the training was simply a failure and a waste of time.

Some may take what I say as natural, others may disagree. I would really like to hear different opinions. But, for now, I suggest you take a moment to think about this “behavioral change” aspect that I’ve highlighted: everything we do might be shown in a new and more interesting light.

by Bruno