Too often, we judge the success of our training by the exceptional students. We highlight the most impressive successes from our most driven participants.
The problem is that these participants would succeed no matter what. In any population, some people have an inner drive to flourish and will do what it takes. If they have the opportunity to take a training class, they will sign up. If they don’t, they’ll find a mentor. Their library card is worn from all the resources they tracked down on their own. Yet we as trainers take credit for their success because we saw them succeed after our program.
For these driven individuals, judging the efficacy of training by their results is a clear example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
Where training provides value is for the folks who aren’t as committed. The people who wouldn’t have learned on their own, but did because of the training experience, are the real outcomes we should be focusing on. There will be success stories regardless of what we do. And, unfortunately, there are likely to be intransigent participants who won’t improve regardless of the opportunities provided (though hopefully good program design can make them few and far between). It is the group in the middle that shows the true value of training.