Why our workplaces aren’t working (Part 5)

Organisations are investing more than ever in development. And that’s a good thing, because building capability is no longer optional — it’s essential.

Yet despite the growing focus on learning and development, there is a common frustration that many organisations experience. Development happens. People attend workshops. They complete online learning modules. They participate in leadership programmes. They gain new knowledge and new perspectives.

Yet behaviour doesn’t always change at the pace expected. The issue isn’t that development doesn’t work. It’s that development alone isn’t enough.

Many organisations still view development as a separate activity — something that happens in a classroom, on a learning platform, or during a training event.

But real capability is not built through learning alone. It is built through a combination of:

structured development (programmes, workshops, digital platforms)

practice in real work

reinforcement from leaders

systems that support new behaviours.

These elements work together. When one of them is missing, progress slows.

People may leave a development programme feeling inspired and motivated. They may genuinely want to apply what they have learned. But when they return to an environment that rewards old habits and familiar ways of working, change becomes difficult to sustain.

If people build new skills but return to environments that reward old behaviours, change will be limited.

If leaders don’t reinforce new ways of working, adoption fades. If there’s no opportunity to apply development in real work, capability doesn’t stick.

This is not because employees lack commitment. It is because human behaviour is heavily influenced by the systems and environments around us.

People naturally pay attention to what is measured, rewarded, recognised and reinforced.

When performance metrics, management practices and organisational priorities remain unchanged, people often revert to what feels safest and most familiar — even when they know a better approach exists.

This doesn’t make development ineffective. It highlights something more important: Development needs to be connected to how work actually happens.

The organisations that create sustainable capability understand this well. They recognise that learning is only the beginning of the journey. The real challenge is creating conditions that allow new knowledge to become consistent behaviour.

Leadership plays a critical role in capability building. Employees pay close attention to the actions of their leaders. When leaders demonstrate new behaviours themselves, ask questions that encourage different thinking and recognise progress along the way, they send a powerful message about what matters.

Without that reinforcement, even the strongest development programmes can struggle to create lasting impact. This is why the most effective organisations don’t separate development from performance. They embed it into the system. They:

link development to real business challenges

hold leaders accountable for reinforcement

create space to apply and practice new skills

align performance expectations with desired behaviours

recognise and reward continuous learning and growth.

In these organisations, development is not viewed as an isolated initiative owned by the learning function. It becomes part of everyday work. Learning happens while solving problems. Capability grows while delivering results.

Development and performance become mutually reinforcing rather than competing priorities.

Development remains a critical investment, but organisations should not expect development alone to drive transformation.

Training can introduce new ideas, workshops can build awareness, programmes can strengthen skills. But sustained behaviour change requires support from the broader system.

Because development isn’t a one-time activity. It’s not an event, it’s not a course, it’s not a single programme. It’s a capability-building system.

And when development, leadership, performance expectations and organisational systems are aligned, learning moves beyond knowledge acquisition and becomes lasting capability.

That is when development delivers its full value. And that is when it becomes a real competitive advantage.

Read earlier parts of this series here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Arinya Talerngsri is Senior Vice President, Local Partner and Managing Director at BTS Thailand, part of the BTS Group, a leading global strategy implementation firm. She is passionate about revolutionising education and creating opportunities for Thais and people worldwide. Executives and organisations looking to collaborate or learn more about leadership and talent development, succession planning and organisational transformation can contact her at [email protected] or visit her LinkedIn profile.