Confession: I don’t believe in training. Not because growth isn’t important but because traditional corporate training programs fail people. That might sound like a bold statement from someone who leads the People team but if you’ve ever left an employee training session unsure about how to apply what you learned you know what I mean. Not only do I not believe in training, I’m on a mission to eliminate the word from our vocabulary all together and challenge the status quo.
We’re building something better.
What’s Wrong with Training?
It’s not the concept of training itself that’s so bad. It’s what it’s become. More often than not, training is a one-time event. It’s bloated with academic frameworks and models, buzz words and jargon, with little regard to application and practice. You are often expected to consume an all-you-can-eat buffet of content in one sitting. It’s not practical nor is it realistic.
Even when you are excited by the training experience and what you learn at the event, using it back on your job is nearly impossible because what you’ve learned isn’t supported by the systems, practices, and unspoken culture of how work gets done. You may have the best intentions, but without practical support of the infrastructure and people around you, it’s never long before you abandon 90% or more of what you learned, frustrated and disenchanted by the whole experience.
What’s more, training is rarely integrated well with the business strategy, leaving you to connect the dots on your own. You learn things that are interesting, but you struggle to know how and when to best apply them. The volume and accessibility of asynchronous learning today adds to this challenge. You can learn all day every day, but where’s the strategy to know what’s most important to your business in your role right now? In a world where we are all starved for more time, learning without a strategy is inefficient and unproductive. No one wants that, and we can do better.
What Sports Got Right
In sports, training means something entirely different. It’s never event based. It’s constant. Every day you work on fine-tuning your skills, pushing to the next level, and improving muscle memory. When you learn something new, the perpetual nature of sports training allows you to practice it over and over. Through this real-time application, you discover exactly how and when it’s best to apply it. You figure out how to make it count.
Sports training doesn’t sizzle. It’s not meant to be entertaining. It isn’t backlit with jazzy graphics, clever gamification, and carefully crafted insights. It’s not fast and flashy. It’s about consistency that builds stamina and putting in the hard work to realize a true, steady transformation over time. It’s the effort you make in pursuit of becoming better, bit by bit.
Why shouldn’t we have the same standard when it comes to learning and growth at work?
Forget Training. What We’re After is Transformation.
At Wallbank Industrial and PJ Wallbank Springs, we’re not interested in training. We think differently about learning and growth. For us, intentional learning is perpetual, never a one-time event. It’s a way of growing people and the business together. Learning fuels our progress. And progress is how we keep building better, which lies at the heart of our vision.
In 2025, we began what we have coined “Perpetual Learning” for all of our functional people leaders. Every month, our leaders convene for a two-hour knowledge or skill building session on topics that connect to our strategy. We are highly selective and intentional about the content we cover. Everything we do flies in the face of traditional corporate learning where you sit in a classroom and listen to a lecture. We believe in hands-on, real-world learning where conversation, self-discovery and real-world practice drive the kind of insights that deliver real skill building and transformative behavior change.
We also put special attention towards our frontline leaders. The easy path would be to put them through a multi-day training program and send them on their way with a new set of tools and insights.
Instead, we have chosen an unconventional path with our Frontline Leader Experience, which combines six months of intensive hands-on learning both in a cohort and on-the-job. Our frontline leaders apply new skills in real time in a way that allows for paced learning and encourages insights through regular self-reflection and coaching.
We know from Gallup that managers are responsible for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. If culture is in the hands of the experience our people leaders give their teams, they deserve a better alternative to traditional corporate training that actually drives employee engagement and growth.
That’s the path we’re on.
Tracey Fletcher, Chief People Officer | Tracey.Fletcher@wallbankindustrial.com
