Behaviour change is our holy grail
All coaches and facilitators, every single one of us, should be measured by the one holy grail of our work: behaviour change. There is no more obvious ROI than that. Full stop.
I wish that landed more clearly in the minds of some of our clients. Partly because it holds us accountable to our end of the bargain. No matter how glowing the feedback — how energising, how memorable, how insightful the room felt — the ultimate aim is to nudge people's behaviour and to see an evolution of their skills demonstrated day to day.
Of course, as they say, the hardest step in changing behaviour isn't the first; it's the second, third and fourth. So while holding us accountable to ROI is entirely right, the system of support required to mould that first step into a lasting habit must be a genuine partnership between us and our clients.
What you asked for vs. what actually works
In the people development arena we are often commoditised into fee brackets, plotted onto a spreadsheet against hours and days. We take educated guesses at how long it will take to unpack a brief, gather the right people, design a solution, and then build a multi-channel approach to delivering it. On paper it always looks clean. Neat. Easy to get right.
Reality is more like a painter's palette: mixed objectives, muddled expectations, ever-shifting lines of execution. It can get messy, with creativity as the response. And so it evolves, but we always stay trained on that big goal — shifting awareness and attitude, supporting individuals to make different choices day to day.
And yet, with all of this as the very essence of the work, we still receive the most extraordinary requests from clients. And it seems to be on the rise. These requests all but ignore the fundamental challenge, which leaves a genuinely puzzling question: why would any organisation throw money at learning experiences that have little chance of transferring into practice?
The 60-minute webinar problem
We recently received a brief to invest in the senior and middle management layer of a large organisation. This community had been pushing the limits of their energy and resolve, and leadership, to their credit, wanted to demonstrate appreciation by investing in their people's growth as individuals and as leaders.
The brief was admirably simple: one hour per month, over 12 months, as a development journey. We asked the obvious questions: is that the full picture, and what does success actually look like for you? The answer was unambiguous — they wanted behaviour change.
We pushed back gently but clearly, and offered an alternative: one that was more likely to actually shift habits and create sustainable change. Here's the part that surprised even us — it would not cost significantly more to do properly. We were trying to say that what you've asked for and what will actually work are two different things.
They didn't buy it. And so thirty people will now gather in a 'learning journey', squeezing 60 minutes into an already jammed monthly calendar, expected to show up fully present, engage with online reading between sessions, and somehow translate all of that into tangible behavioural impact. Meanwhile, Learning and Development will have ticked their box. And nothing will change.
When it ends, the message will ring out clearly even if no one says it out loud: investing in people isn't worth it. And that is the battle we are in. The real one.
In a world where attention spans are fractured, senses are over-stimulated and AI can answer almost any question in seconds, the only thing left that truly moves people are shared experiences. Ones that are memorable. Ones that create accountability. Ones that make behaviour change feel not just possible, but inevitable.
A 60-minute monthly webinar will never get close to that. Not even on its best day. We have libraries of evidence to prove it. Why are so few decision-makers listening?