Do you want to leave a professional development training with new skills, greater understanding and something you can actually use?

Or merely a lighter bank account?

I’ve spent enough on my personal and professional development to have bought a small house.

Admittedly, in the current property market it might have been a very small house with dodgy plumbing, but still.

Some of that training changed how I thought, worked and lived. It gave me skills I’ve continued to use for decades.

Some of it taught me one important lesson:

Glossy marketing is not evidence of good training.

I’ve paid dearly for grand promises, famous names and courses that generated plenty of excitement but very little lasting learning.

If you’re investing your own money, you want to choose wisely.

If you’re responsible for an organisation’s training budget, you need more than enthusiastic evaluation forms completed while everyone is still on a high, clutching their certificates and complimentary pens.

You want something to be different afterwards.

The aim isn’t just to find the cheapest course.

It is to avoid paying for the wrong one.

1. Decide what you want to be different

Before comparing dates, trainers and prices, decide what you want from the training.

Do you want to:

• understand a subject?
• develop a practical skill?
• change a habitual behaviour?
• gain a recognised qualification?
• improve your performance at work?
• become capable of helping other people?
• explore a possible new direction?

While some courses might cover all these, often they are different outcomes that may require different kinds of learning.

“I want to know more about communication” is not the same as:

“I want to listen more accurately, handle difficult conversations and communicate clearly with my team.”

The second gives you something concrete against which to assess a course.

It also helps the trainer tell you honestly whether their programme fits what you need.

Before enrolling, ask:

What should I understand or be able to do by the end?

If neither you nor the training provider can answer that clearly, keep hold of your credit card.

2. Choose the right kind of training

Not every learning need requires a course.

Sometimes a book, article, podcast, lecture or short presentation is enough.

If you want an introduction to French history, an explanation of how DNA ancestry testing works or a broad overview of NLP, you may not need several days in a training room.

Information can be gained in many inexpensive ways.

Practical competence is different.

You can read about driving a car, yet never be able to drive one.

You can watch videos about coaching without knowing how to respond when a real person gives an unexpected answer.

You can study communication and remain blissfully unaware that you interrupt people halfway through their sentences.

Developing a skill usually involves:

• understanding what to do
• seeing or hearing it demonstrated
• trying it yourself
• receiving feedback
• making adjustments
• practising again

Choose a learning format that matches the outcome.

Don’t buy six days of training when a book will do the job.

Equally, don’t expect a 90-minute webinar to give you a skill that requires practice, observation and feedback.

3. Does the delivery format suit what you need to learn?

Online versus in-person training

Online training can be convenient, accessible and less expensive.

You can attend from home, avoid travel and accommodation costs, and learn from someone who lives on the other side of the world. It can work extremely well for webinars, introductory information, discussion groups, follow-up sessions, small coaching groups and one-to-one coaching.

But the easiest format in which to deliver a course is not necessarily the best format in which to learn a particular skill.

This matters especially when training involves communication, observation, group interaction and responding to subtle changes in other people.

What can the participant see?

On most video calls, participants see little more than a collection of heads and shoulders.

That can unintentionally train people to pay attention only to facial expressions and the upper body.

In everyday communication, useful changes may appear elsewhere:

• hands tightening or becoming still
• leg and foot movement
• feet shifting direction
• changes in posture
• alterations in breathing
• someone leaning towards or away from another person
• changes in how much space they occupy

None of these movements has one fixed meaning.

A foot moving does not provide a secret diagnosis of someone’s inner life.

Sensory acuity involves noticing changes before deciding what they mean, then checking your interpretation rather than assuming it is correct.

That is easier to learn when you can observe the whole person.

A camera also changes what is available. Lighting, framing, filters, background effects and sound processing may hide, distort or exaggerate what you see and hear. Internet quality can create further distortion.

You are not observing the person directly.

You are observing the version of them selected and processed by their camera, microphone and software.

Long sessions online can also be unusually tiring. Participants spend extended periods looking at a screen, often seeing their own image as well as everyone else’s, while working harder to notice and interpret non-verbal responses.

Research into video-conference fatigue suggests that restricted movement, prolonged close-up eye contact, self-view and the additional effort involved in communicating through a screen can all contribute to exhaustion.

What can the trainer see?

The trainer’s view is limited too.

In a small physical group, I can monitor the whole room while people practise.

I can notice that someone has misunderstood the instructions, that a pair has become stuck, or that an important shift has occurred outside the area most people are watching.

I can then draw attention to a useful example without necessarily singling someone out or making them self-conscious.

That becomes part of the learning for everyone.

Online breakout rooms make this much harder. A trainer can visit one room at a time but cannot see what is happening in the others.

By the time they arrive, participants may already have spent several minutes practising an exercise incorrectly or missing something important.

The trainer also loses much of the peripheral information available in a room:

• who looks puzzled but hasn’t asked a question
• who has stopped participating
• how different people respond to a demonstration
• whether the energy of the group has shifted
• whether someone needs another explanation or a short pause

People can ask questions online, of course. But they may need to unmute, raise a digital hand or type into the chat. That additional step can mean the question is delayed, softened or never asked.

Match the format to the outcome

None of this means online training is inherently poor.

I use it for one-to-one coaching, small coaching groups and webinars, where I can see everyone clearly and the format suits the purpose.

But an extended course teaching interpersonal skills, sensory acuity, live observation and practical change work asks something different of both trainer and participant.

For those skills, being in the same room provides more information, more immediate feedback and more opportunities to learn from what is happening beyond the edges of a webcam frame.

The question is not whether online or face-to-face training is better in every situation.

It is whether the format supports what you are there to learn.

4. Calculate the real cost

Is professional development worth the money?

The course fee is only part of the investment.

Depending on the training, you may also need to consider:

• travel and accommodation
• meals and transport
• time away from work or your business
• childcare or other caring arrangements
• books, equipment or course materials
• assessment or certification fees
• ongoing supervision or membership requirements
• time needed to practise afterwards

A less expensive course can cost more overall if it requires several trips, contains unexpected fees or fails to give you what you need.

An apparently expensive course may offer better value if the fee includes good materials, plenty of supervised practice and skills you continue using for years.

Cost and value are not the same thing.

Ask for the complete picture before deciding.

5. Investigate the trainer and the course

You don’t need to conduct a full criminal investigation, but a little rummaging is sensible.

Look at:

• the trainer’s experience
• qualifications relevant to what they teach
• how long they have been using the skills themselves
• whether the programme has clear content and outcomes
• reviews or testimonials from people who attended that particular course
• whether you can speak to a previous participant
• what happens if the course does not suit your needs

A well-known trainer is not automatically a good teacher.

An entertaining speaker is not necessarily capable of helping you develop a skill.

A qualification matters if you need recognised certification. If you don’t need a qualification, practical experience and teaching ability may matter more.

When reading testimonials, look for detail.

“This course was amazing!” tells you that someone was enthusiastic when they wrote it.

“I now manage difficult meetings without becoming defensive, and my team has begun raising problems earlier” tells you what changed.

For a substantial course, speak to the trainer before enrolling. Explain what you want and ask whether the programme is appropriate.

A good trainer should be willing to say no when it isn’t.

6. Find out how the course is taught

A course description tells you what subjects will be covered.

It may not tell you what you’ll spend the day doing or how you can evaluate a training course.

Will you mostly:

• listen to lectures?
• watch slides?
• discuss ideas?
• observe demonstrations?
• practise with other participants?
• work on your own situations?
• receive individual feedback?

None of these is automatically right or wrong. It depends on what you want to learn.

For practical skills, ask how much time is allocated to demonstration, practice and feedback.

Watching a skilled trainer demonstrate something can reveal details that are difficult to capture in written instructions.

Trying it yourself reveals another set of details, including the awkward discovery that understanding an exercise and performing it are not quite the same thing.

Feedback helps you recognise what you did well, what you missed and what to adjust next time.

Also ask whether there will be enough opportunity to ask questions.

A trainer needs to manage the timetable, but questions often reveal where participants need another explanation, a different example or a little more practice.

7. Consider the learning environment

People learn more readily when they feel able to participate, ask questions and make mistakes without being humiliated.

Find out:

• how many people will be attending
• who the course is intended for
• whether you’ll work alone, in pairs or in groups
• how confidentiality is handled
• how physically and emotionally demanding the days will be
• whether appropriate breaks are included
• whether the venue and materials meet your accessibility needs
• how flexible the trainer can be when the group needs something explained differently

A group can be large enough to offer variety while still allowing everyone to participate.

Too large, and you may become an audience member rather than a trainee.

The trainer’s style matters too.

Humour and enjoyment can make learning easier and help a group relax together. But fun should support the learning, not replace it.

Beware of programmes relying on long hours, little sleep, relentless excitement and repeated cries of “Are you ready?”

You may leave feeling euphoric.

The better question is what you’ll understand and still be using three months later.

8. Ask how the learning will survive contact with real life

The end of a course is usually the beginning of becoming competent.

Once you’re back at work or home, familiar pressures return. The phone rings. The inbox breeds overnight. Someone presses the exact button you were certain you had removed during the training.

Ask what will help you continue applying the learning.

That might include:

• clear reference materials
• exercises to practise
• an action plan
• access to recordings
• peer practice groups
• follow-up sessions
• opportunities to ask later questions
• coaching or supervision where appropriate

Not every course needs months of additional support.

But you should leave knowing what to practise and how to recognise whether you’re improving.

If an organisation is paying for the course, it should also consider how the workplace will support the new behaviour.

Sending someone on leadership training and returning them to a culture that punishes every new idea is unlikely to produce miracles.

9. Read the promises, policies and small print

Training advertisements can become excitable.

Watch for promises that are vague, enormous or entirely dependent on the participant imagining what they might mean.

Ask:

• What does the course specifically promise?
• What does it not promise?
• What happens if the trainer cancels?
• What happens if you cannot attend?
• Can you transfer to another date?
• Is any refund policy clear and written down?
• Are there conditions attached to a guarantee?
• Will you be pressured to buy another programme during the course?
• Are essential parts of the training sold separately?

A guarantee is only useful when you know exactly what it covers.

For The Power of Personal Change, I use a straightforward Inside Out Promise:

Show up. Participate fully. Apply what you learn.

If someone does those things and genuinely experiences no meaningful internal change, I’ll refund the course fee.

That does not promise that every participant will produce the same result.

People arrive with different experiences, needs and intentions. What matters is that the promise is clear enough for both of us to understand what is being offered.

Cheap training can be remarkably expensive

The best way to save money on professional development is not always to spend less.

It is to become clearer about what you need and more discerning about what you buy.

A useful course should offer more than information you could have found in a book.

It should give you an appropriate combination of understanding, experience, practice, feedback and support.

You should leave with something you can use.

Not merely a branded folder and a photograph of yourself with a certificate.

So, now you know how to choose professional development

I made some bad training assumptions

For years, I assumed that a high-profile trainer or an impressive price tag meant I was in safe hands.

Sometimes I was.

Sometimes I spent the first day waiting for the useful bit to begin, only to discover on the final afternoon that I had apparently already had it.

The training that has stayed with me was not always the flashiest.

It made me think.

It allowed me to watch, question and practise.

I didn’t feel as if I was one amongst many, where no-one cared whether I did the exercises correctly or not.

It helped me notice what I had been doing and gave me something different to do instead.

That is now the standard I use when choosing training for myself and designing it for other people.

If this post helped

Feel free to share it with someone who is considering investing in professional development.

You can also subscribe to Thinky Things, my short, weekly-ish email of fresh reflections, useful questions and small things to notice.

No noise. No pressure. Unsubscribe anytime.

Get Thinky Things

Curious about how I put these principles into practice? Find out more about The Power of Personal Change.

Tags: Communication skills, Interpersonal skills, Language, Self-awareness, Thinking and mindset, work and career