Enhancing Employee Engagement in Training

The DOJ consistently says that compliance programs should be effective, data-driven, and focused on whether employees are actually learning. Yet... The standard training "data" is literally just completion data! Imagine if I asked a revenue leader how their sales team was doing and the leader said, "100% of our sales reps came to work today." I'd be furious! How can I assess effectiveness if all I have is an attendance list? Compliance leaders I chat with want to move to a data-driven approach but change management is hard, especially with clunky tech. Plus, it's tricky to know where to start– you often can't go from 0 to 60 in a quarter. In case this serves as inspiration, here are a few things Ethena customers are doing to make their compliance programs data-driven and learning-focused: 1. Employee-driven learning: One customer is asking, at the beginning of their code of conduct training, "Which topic do you want to learn more about?" and then offering a list. Employees get different training based on their selection...and no, "No training pls!" is not an option. The compliance team gets to see what issues are top of mind and then they can focus on those topics throughout the year. 2. Targeted training: Another customer is asking, "How confident are you raising bribery concerns in your team," and then analyzing the data based on department and country. They've identified the top 10 teams they are focusing their ABAC training and communications on, because prioritization is key. You don't need to move from the traditional, completion-focused model to a data-driven program all at once. But take incremental steps to layer on data that surfaces risks and lets you prioritize your efforts. And your vendor should be your thought partner, not the obstacle, in this journey! I've seen Ethena's team work magic in terms of navigating concerns like PII and LMS limitations – it can be done!

This week, I facilitated a manager workshop on how to grow and develop people and teams. One question sparked a great conversation: “How do you develop your people outside of formal programs?” It’s a great question. IMO, one of the highest leverage actions a leader can take is making small, but consistent actions to develop their people. While formal learning experiences absolutely a role, there are far more opportunities for growth outside of structured settings from an hours in the day perspective. Helping leaders recognize and embrace this is a major opportunity. I introduced the idea of Practices of Development (PODs) aka small, intentional activities integrated into everyday work that help employees build skills, flex new muscles, and increase their impact. Here are a few examples we discussed: 🌟 Paired Programming: Borrowed from software engineering, this involves pairing an employee with a peer to take on a new task—helping them ramp up quickly, cross-train, or learn by doing. 🌟 Learning Logs: Have team members track what they’re working on, learning, and questioning to encourage reflection. 🌟 Bullpen Sessions: Bring similar roles together for feedback, idea sharing, and collaborative problem-solving, where everyone both A) shares a deliverable they are working on, and B) gets feedback and suggestions for improvement 🌟 Each 1 Teach 1:  Give everyone a chance to teach one work-related skill or insight to the team. 🌟 I Do, We Do, You Do:Adapted from education, this scaffolding approach lets you model a task, then do it together, then hand it off. A simple and effective way to build confidence and skill. 🌟 Back Pocket Ideas:  During strategy/scoping work sessions, ask employees to submit ideas for initiatives tied to a customer problem or personal interest. Select the strongest ones and incorporate them into their role. These are a few examples that have worked well. If you’ve found creative ways to build development opportunities into your employees day to day work, I’d love to hear what’s worked for you!

Want more productive workshops? Try stopping them sooner. Workshops often lock people in a room for two or three hours and expect them to do their best thinking on demand. Do we really have to hold people hostage to be productive? Lately, I’ve been using a technique I call "Echo Sessions." Instead of forcing deep work to happen in real time, we kickstart an activity, get clarity, but then stop just as people are getting into it. That pause is intentional. It’s based on the same principle as the Pomodoro technique—when you leave something unfinished while still feeling engaged, you'll find it easy to return to it later and give it space to percolate. Instead of dragging out a long workshop, I schedule an Echo Session later—often in the same day—where everyone brings their independent or small group work back for discussion, iteration, and action. Why does this work? ✅ Encourages Deep Work – People get time to think, research, or create in their own way, rather than being forced into artificial collaboration. ✅ Optimizes Meeting Time – Workshops should be for shared understanding, decision-making, and iteration—not for quiet focus time. ✅ Respects Different Work Styles – Some need time to walk and think. Others need to sketch. Some want to research or tap into AI. Echo Sessions give people time and space to work in the way that’s best for them. ✅ Creates Natural Momentum – Stopping at a high-energy moment makes people want to continue later, giving them space to create, rather than leaving them drained from a marathon session. ✅ Reduces Calendar Lockdowns – Instead of monopolizing hours at a time, work is distributed more effectively and meetings are only used when necessary. Most importantly, this approach treats participants like adults. It gives them flexibility and agency while ensuring that meetings serve a clear, valuable purpose. We don’t need long workshops. We need better workshops. Curious—how do you approach workshop fatigue? Would this work in your team?

Psychological safety is crucial for manager development programs. Here's how learning designers can create safer spaces for learning. It's hard for leaders to admit not knowing something. However, this vulnerability is essential to up-skilling and learning. That's where psychological safety comes in. Psychological safety is the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. Here's how to design manager development programs that prioritize psychological safety: ⚽️ Normalize Practice. There's a common misconception that you're born a great manager. But this is a skill! That means practicing hard conversations, strategy plans, and more. Learning leaders can normalize practice by... ↳ Designing role play environments around real-life manager situations ↳ Encouraging HRBPs to drive practice, not just answers ↳ Teaching managers which situations require preparation and practice 👋 Design Peer Spaces. Management isn't a solo sport and every manager goes through the same situations without realizing it. Peer-to-peer environments can help. Learning leaders can lean on peer-to-peer spaces by... ↳ Designing manager support groups and discussion spaces ↳ Setting clear rules around confidentiality and not recording sessions ↳ Encouraging not knowing and asking for help ⭐️ Model Vulnerability. Managers can feel the pressure to know everything and often rush to answer questions or situations. This is where mistakes happen. Learning leaders can model vulnerability by... ↳ Defining great leadership as an always-learning state ↳ Celebrating good questions, pausing to get back, and asking for help ↳ Showing various avenues where managers can ask questions 🙌 Admit Mistakes. Managers can also feel the pressure to be perfect given the high stakes. But no one's perfect! Learning leaders can celebrate mistakes by... ↳ Thanking managers when they bring up mistakes or errors ↳ Teaching managers how to own up to mistakes and find solutions w/ teams ↳ Showing how humility and apologies can build trust and rapport 🌱 Drive Mentorship. Your experienced leaders are your best resource for manager development. Learning leaders can lean on mentorship by... ↳ Creating mentorship programs and matching for newer managers ↳ Teaching mentors how to run sessions and build safety in their 1:1s ↳ Teaching managers what kinds of questions they can bring to mentors 🌱 Build HRBP Trust. Your HRBPs are there for a reason, but it only works with trust! Learning leaders can build HRBP trust by... ↳ Teaching managers what kinds of questions HRBPs can help with ↳ Building deeper touch points between HRBPs and their populations ↳ Celebrating when managers ask for help How do you build safe spaces for learning? Let us know in the comments! #learninganddevelopment #leadership #management #hr #peopleops

A lot of time and money goes into corporate training—but not nearly enough comes out of it. In fact, companies spent $130 billion on training last year, yet only 25% of programs measurably improved business performance. Having run countless training workshops, I’ve seen firsthand what makes the difference. Some teams walk away energized and equipped. Others… not so much. If you’re involved in organizing training—whether for a small team or a large department—here’s how to make sure it actually works: ✅ Do your research. Talk to your team. What skills would genuinely help them day-to-day? A few interviews or a quick survey can reveal exactly where to focus. ✅ Start with a solid brief. Give your trainer as much context as possible: goals, audience, skill levels, examples of past work, what’s worked—and what hasn’t. ✅ Don’t shortchange the time. A 90-minute session might inspire, but it won’t transform. For deeper learning and hands-on practice, give it time—ideally 2+ hours or spaced chunks over a few days. ✅ Share real examples. Generic content doesn’t stick. When the trainer sees your actual slides, templates, and challenges, they can tailor the session to hit home. ✅ Choose the right group size. Smaller groups mean better interaction and more personalized support. If you want engagement, resist the temptation to pack the (virtual) room. ✅ Make it matter. Set expectations. Send reminders. And if it’s virtual, cameras on goes a long way toward focus and connection. ✅ Schedule follow-up support. Reinforcement matters. Book a post-session Q&A, office hours, or refresher so people actually use what they’ve learned. ✅ Follow up. Send a quick survey afterward to measure impact and shape the next session. One-off training rarely moves the needle—but a well-planned series can. Helping teams level up their presentation skills is what I do—structure, storytelling, design, and beyond. If that’s on your radar, I’d love to help. DM me to get the conversation started.

Ever notice how some leaders seem to have a sixth sense for meeting dynamics while others plow through their agenda oblivious to glazed eyes, side conversations, or everyone needing several "bio breaks" over the course of an hour? Research tells us executives consider 67% of virtual meetings failures, and a staggering 92% of employees admit to multitasking during meetings. After facilitating hundreds of in-person, virtual, and hybrid sessions, I've developed my "6 E's Framework" to transform the abstract concept of "reading the room" into concrete skills anyone can master. (This is exactly what I teach leaders and teams who want to dramatically improve their meeting and presentation effectiveness.) Here's what to look for and what to do: 1. Eye Contact: Notice where people are looking (or not looking). Are they making eye contact with you or staring at their devices? Position yourself strategically, be inclusive with your gaze, and respectfully acknowledge what you observe: "I notice several people checking watches, so I'll pick up the pace." 2. Energy: Feel the vibe - is it friendly, tense, distracted? Conduct quick energy check-ins ("On a scale of 1-10, what's your energy right now?"), pivot to more engaging topics when needed, and don't hesitate to amplify your own energy through voice modulation and expressive gestures. 3. Expectations: Regularly check if you're delivering what people expected. Start with clear objectives, check in throughout ("Am I addressing what you hoped we'd cover?"), and make progress visible by acknowledging completed agenda items. 4. Extraneous Activities: What are people doing besides paying attention? Get curious about side conversations without defensiveness: "I see some of you discussing something - I'd love to address those thoughts." Break up presentations with interactive elements like polls or small group discussions. 5. Explicit Feedback: Listen when someone directly tells you "we're confused" or "this is exactly what we needed." Remember, one vocal participant often represents others' unspoken feelings. Thank people for honest feedback and actively solicit input from quieter participants. 6. Engagement: Monitor who's participating and how. Create varied opportunities for people to engage with you, the content, and each other. Proactively invite (but don't force) participation from those less likely to speak up. I've shared my complete framework in the article in the comments below. In my coaching and workshops with executives and teams worldwide, I've seen these skills transform even the most dysfunctional meeting cultures -- and I'd be thrilled to help your company's speakers and meeting leaders, too. What meeting dynamics challenge do you find most difficult to navigate? I'd love to hear your experiences in the comments! #presentationskills #virualmeetings #engagement

Your team(s) can be the heroes of your company story. With only 33% average employee engagement in today’s workplace, and facing the Era of AI and Authenticity vs. Artificiality... we need to build leadership practices that make the business journey about our customers, but also about our EMPLOYEES. Success begins internally. The best companies and leaders I know right now are diligently working to make their employees a core part of the company story. And that means... If you're getting up on stage about to present to a large group of your organization, consider whether you're putting their feelings, experiences, and ... FIRST. My guess? Your top line to-do list in any presentation, pitch, email, or meeting is about your company. Where it’s been. Where it's going. If you're like many of my clients in tech right now, you're leading with exciting news of novel AI infrastructure and innovative incoming products. How... exciting! Yes. On a company level. To shareholders. But to your employees maybe that news might be ... overwhelming. Indicative of new learning, projects, programs, and infrastructure heading THEIR way.  Your teams might be excited. They might also be intimidated. Or exhausted. Or... tuning you out, checking their inbox, and replying to the urgent need someone just sent their way. Here’s a reality check: When you're presenting exciting news like novel AI infrastructure, it might thrill shareholders, but for your team, it could spell uncertainty and added workload. Engagement starts with #empathy. Make empathy your top priority. Build your presentations, speeches, conferences, agendas from these simple foundational questions: - What does my team need from this presentation? - How can I make my team the heroes of this corporate narrative? - How does this align with our broader goals in a way that excites and involves everyone? Then, listen. Engage WITH your teams. Be invested in THEIR stories. Their success. Their experiences. Model the buy-in you want to create. And then do it all over again. Have a good example of empathetic engagement from your company's leadership? I want to hear it. Send me a note or drop it in the comments. #Leadership #CorporateCulture #EmployeeEngagement #StrategicCommunication #AuthenticLeadership #AIinBusiness Gallup 2023 Engagement Study: https://lnkd.in/guaFCps6

Hey leaders, how's your feedback game? Does every member of your team know where they stand in these areas? -Performance 📈 -Skills/Competencies 💡 -Individual and Team Goals 🎯 -Collaboration and Teamwork 👥 -Initiative and Innovation 💥 -Time Management ⏰ -Career Growth and Progression 🌱 Gallup found that employees who get regular feedback are 3.5 times more likely to be engaged at work than those who get it once a year or less. If you are waiting for mid/annual review time to give your team feedback you are missing the mark. ➡ High performers want meaningful feedback (more than just "keep up the good work"). ➡ Lower performers need meaningful feedback plus support, coaching, and accountability. Good feedback is timely, relevant, actionable, unbiased, and focused on behaviors (not personal traits). Ongoing feedback fosters growth, engagement, and a culture of continuous learning, which is directly connected to employee retention. Your team members should not only receive feedback but also have the opportunity to provide you with feedback. What's the best feedback you've received and how did it impact your career?

There’s no question that AI is transforming the training landscape. From AI’s ability to tailor an employee’s learning journey based on their existing or required skills, learning preferences, and previous courses to virtual training that uses AI chatbots to answer employee questions and provide on-demand microlearning support, AI has opened up lots of developmental possibilities. While some speakers and trainers, understandably, are worried about being rendered irrelevant, here’s some context (and potentially good news) about what I’m seeing when it comes to skills-based communication and leadership training. Organizations are not seeking external training for purely knowledge-based issues, since AI can put together training on just about anything. Good information is not a differentiator. But with more technology comes more miscommunication. Employees may have instant access to information, but retention of that information and the emotional intelligence and ability to navigate high-stakes conversations—these are still deeply human skills and require real-time coaching and training to build. Skills-based trainers and coaches can make the most impact by using role play to help people practice the communication and aligned leadership skills for learning transfer to happen. The L&D initiatives that drive real change aren’t about knowledge acquisition—they’re about skill embodiment. And the best way to ensure that learning sticks? Live, immersive role-play training. A lot of trainers say they use role-play for skill development, but in reality, it’s often a surface-level exercise—scripted, predictable, and failing to replicate the real-world pressures of high-stakes communication. What True Role-Play Training Looks Like -Learners experience the tension and unpredictability of real conversations. -Scenarios are customized to specific challenges. -Participants get live coaching and feedback to adjust in the moment and get to retry critical communication. -There's psychological safety and trust for high-stakes practice—before it counts in real life. Role-play training isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s becoming a business imperative! As AI reshapes the learning landscape, the ability to embody skills—especially in high-stakes communication—is what sets impactful training, like what we do at Step into Your Moxie, apart. The most effective L&D initiatives aren’t just about acquiring knowledge; they’re about building the confidence and competence to use it when it matters most. How are you seeing AI impact leadership and communication training in your organization or consulting practice?

As a leader of learning and development teams and now in my consulting role, I've noticed a shift in how we present the impact of our work. We used to rely heavily on facts, charts, and pages of detailed statistics to showcase our reach. But I've found #storytelling to be a much more compelling way to demonstrate real human #impact. This was driven home for me in a recent Amazon commercial that features three women gazing at a snowy hill where people are sledding. Not a single word is spoken, yet we understand these friends are reminiscing about childhood memories made in a similar setting. The story of lasting connection and friendship shines through beautifully without overt explanation. I think this is a key lesson for those of us in L&D roles. We spend so much time tracking participation rates, completion metrics and quiz scores. But what really matters is how our work impacts real people and teams. Storytelling puts faces and #emotions to the numbers. By spotlighting individual learner journeys, we can showcase personal growth and #performance improvements. Instead of stating "95% of employees completed our new manager training last quarter," we can share, "Let me tell you about how Amy implemented what she learned about feedback conversations to dramatically improve her team's engagement scores." Storytelling aligns people to purpose by helping them see themselves and their colleagues reflected in the narratives. It builds connection as people realize we all experience similar pain points, growth opportunities, and wins. So as you look for ways to expand the reach and impact of L&D in your organization, I encourage you to tell more stories. Share how real humans have advanced in their careers thanks to new skills, built relationships using your training content or overcome challenges after adopting new tools. The facts and stats remain important, but the stories will truly capture hearts and minds. Have an example to share? Add it in the comments below and let's learn together!