Designing Training That Drives Real Impact: 4 Key Considerations

The best learning interventions don’t just happen. They are carefully designed combinations of various components that aim to engage and stimulate, impart knowledge, practice concepts, and link seamlessly to the overall goals established for both the educational program and the broader organisational outcomes required.

This article outlines four key aspects to consider when designing training programmes to ensure the desired outcomes are achieved.

4 key considerations to design effective training programmes

Develop comprehensive learning outcomes

When designing training programmes, it’s essential to have a deep understanding of all the outcomes required. While this linkage seems self-evident, it is often hard for organisations to grasp. For example, a procurement-focused training solution was deployed by a large organisation. The organisation wanted to improve organisational performance, but the goals for the training were designed solely around passing a professional exam, not being able to apply concepts in a practical way to deliver value. In this case, no behavioural or enacted change was achieved, although the exam pass rate was improved.

Developing a comprehensive set of learning outcomes and defining clear objectives for the programme is critical to the overall training design: we have to know what the program has to achieve for both the participants and the organisation. We also must recognise that the program extends beyond the face-to-face (or e-equivalent) delivery, as we discussed in our earlier blog on learning approaches.

Design with constraints in mind

A key constraint organisations face when designing training programs is the time available to individuals to participate in a training program. This describes the broader investment–preparation, briefing, input, follow up and review. This is also linked to the volume of input content. Workshop durations are often limited by participants’ availability, which leads to a compression of either the number of subjects covered or the depth. For example, a strategy development course usually has a significant amount of content, often based on typical MBA materials. This means the content must be compressed to fit into trainees’ schedules, sacrificing either breadth of content or depth of exploration.

When designing a training programme, you must design around these constraints, balancing what is possible with what is required. To achieve this, we must consider the range of potential approaches within a workshop.

Ideally, a workshop should have the following components:

• Traditional content-based input: the theory.
• A demonstration of practical applications of the concept and a case study.
• Discussions around the application and perceived challenges.
• An opportunity to practically apply the concept.

Covering all of these components can take an hour or more per subset of the subject area.

Add new content when necessary

Training programmes must remain adaptable and delve into non-traditional areas when needed. For example, including AI applications in the world of procurement is a regular requirement we receive. However, this landscape is changing and developing on an almost daily basis. Building a coherent picture of what this means and how it can be incorporated requires new content to be built and trialled almost ad-hoc as use cases change. When designing training programs, being aware of evergreen components and those requiring periodic updates is essential.

Consider participant skill levels

The final design component is the journey that participants are on. You will rarely find a room full of individuals with the same skill level or experience, so the programme design needs to cater to a range of knowledge and will need to be adaptable depending on the makeup of a particular group. Ideally, this is all pre-determined through a level of competency assessment beforehand, but as experienced trainers will recognise, this is an imperfect expectation.

Designing training programmes that deliver

Effective training programmes don’t just transfer knowledge—they drive real change. To develop training programmes that deliver the desired outcomes, allow enough space for the design element to ensure all critical factors are adequately contemplated. By clearly defining learning outcomes, designing around constraints, keeping content relevant, and adapting to participants’ skill levels, organisations can ensure their training delivers both immediate and long-term value.

Reach out to discuss how to design training programs that drive real impact or connect with Mark Hubbard on LinkedIn.