Five Warning Signs: How to Know It's Time for Your Team to Learn
How to start training your team before things fall apart due to a lack of skills, rather than after? This article covers 5 key signals that it's time for corporate learning.
A request for training
The most obvious marker, but often ignored. When an employee comes and asks for training themselves — that's perfect. But it often works differently: nobody asks me, and I'm not going to bring it up myself.
How to catch a request from an employee?
How to catch a request from an employee?
- Regular 1-1s. The simplest but most time-consuming method. Find out which tasks take up the most time and energy, what didn't work out, and what ideas they have for improvement.
- Asking for training ≠ incompetence. Create an atmosphere where wanting to grow is seen as good and encouraged. Do this by sharing examples of colleagues who succeeded after training and talking about your own learning experiences.
- Internal events. Large conferences or small informal gatherings where anyone can share what new things they've learned and how it helps at work.
- Allow experimentation and mistakes. Knowledge sticks worse without hands-on practice. You can refine skills without business risk in sandboxes or pilot projects.
- A kaleidoscope of formats. Courses, workshops, conferences, podcasts, expert lectures, subscriptions to bookstores or book clubs, debates, and so on. Anything where participants can gain new knowledge and share it.
Why work with employee requests?
Why work with employee requests?
The feeling of development and progress is a fundamental human need. Ignoring this request directly leads to internal dissatisfaction, which sooner or later results in employee turnover. People don't always leave because of money — often it's because of a lack of growth opportunities.
The team systematically fails to meet goals
Constant missed deadlines, rising number of conflicts, reduced communication efficiency, and an overall drop in productivity.
Important: Yes, this is a sign of a problem, but training isn't always the solution. The team might need coaching, a retrospective with an external facilitator, or process changes instead of a training session.
Important: Yes, this is a sign of a problem, but training isn't always the solution. The team might need coaching, a retrospective with an external facilitator, or process changes instead of a training session.
Oh, how convenient! We just happen to know how to do training, coaching, and retrospectives :) Text us about your problem:
Consequences of ignoring:
Consequences of ignoring:
Accumulation of internal dissatisfaction among employees, stagnation, and as a result — loss of money and talent.
Low engagement
Employees do the bare minimum, don't propose new ideas, and avoid taking initiative. Enthusiasm and drive have been replaced by routine.
This kind of passivity often indicates that the team is simply bored. They've stopped being curious about what they do. This kills creativity, the ability to think outside the box, and loyalty.
This kind of passivity often indicates that the team is simply bored. They've stopped being curious about what they do. This kills creativity, the ability to think outside the box, and loyalty.
This can also be a sign of company rigidity — a lack of both vertical and horizontal mobility. When people don't grow in their roles or try new roles, the system starts to stall.
David Bokuchava
Managing Partner at BEsmart, certified ICP-ATF facilitator
Changes are coming
New technologies or processes are being introduced, and the team can't adapt. The result: customers complain about service quality, outdated approaches, and the company falls behind competitors.
Let's be proactive. Don't wait until things get bad after changes. The best strategy is to prepare for changes in advance — let training be your ally. If the team is already falling behind, you need to train them yesterday, and now you'll have to spend resources on both training and fixing the situation.
David Bokuchava
Managing Partner at BEsmart, certified ICP-ATF facilitator
"We're already the smartest and the top player in the market without training"
The most dangerous situation — when the company is currently a leader and employees feel that everything has already been achieved, no one will catch up, and they can relax.
But they can't. This is a direct path to repeating the fate of companies like Nokia or Kodak — market leaders that couldn't adapt to new realities in time. In this case, training is a way to look at yourself and the industry from the outside, challenge stereotypes, and search for unexpected solutions.
But they can't. This is a direct path to repeating the fate of companies like Nokia or Kodak — market leaders that couldn't adapt to new realities in time. In this case, training is a way to look at yourself and the industry from the outside, challenge stereotypes, and search for unexpected solutions.
What happens if you don't train?
- Accumulation of dissatisfaction at the individual and team levels
- Loss of hope for change, depletion of internal resources
- Stagnation, loss of competitive advantages
- High turnover of employees who leave in search of growth opportunities
Training isn't just about acquiring new skills. It's an opportunity for a team to reflect on their experience, try on new lenses, and see unexpected, creative paths to solving business problems. By refusing it, a company voluntarily cuts off a huge amount of its potential.