We've all been there. In a training session, one coworker leans over and whispers, "I don't have time for this. I have real work to do." Another announces that we all must have really screwed up to end up in training. A third says he understands that others need the training, so that's why we all need to go through it. You sit through the training but nothing changes or improves as a result.

According to Dr. Eduardo Salas writing in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. firms spent about $156 billion dollars on employee training in 2011, but 90 percent of the new skills acquired in that training were lost within one year.

Karin Hurt, author of the leadership book Winning Well, says that when organizations find something that needs to be improved or changed, they often rush to conduct training. But, she notes, training doesn't work in a vacuum. It takes more than just the training session to make the training work. In her post, "Six Reasons Your Training Isn't Working," Hurt offers reasons why the training you invest in might not have the greatest impact possible, as we share in this issue of Promotional Consultant Today.

1. Poor leadership behaviors at the top. If your training aims to improve culture, or processes, make sure leadership is modeling the culture, behavior or processes in order to reinforce the training.

2. Unclear expectations. If you are seeking to make your organization do something better, make sure they clearly understand what that something is or the training will not stick.

3. Lack of support structures. Make sure your processes and systems support, and not constrain, the results you are seeking from the training.

4. Dipping. According to Hurt, holding a training that has no work, no follow-up, no action plans and no accountability for results from the training is dipping, not training, and doesn't create sustainable change.

5. You need to fix me. Training should never be positioned or viewed as a punishment.

6. So and so really needs this. As a leader, if you are asking your team to invest the time and effort in the training, make sure you determine how you can use the concepts from the training in your own leadership.

Source: Karin Hurt helps leaders around the world achieve breakthrough results, without losing their soul.