We’ve all been there: You launch a shiny new training program, watch completion rates hit 90%+, celebrate the great survey scores, and then absolute radio silence. Six weeks later, employees are right back to their old habits, buried under competing priorities, and doing things the way they always have.
Welcome to the activation gap—the frustrating drop-off between learning a skill and actually using it on the job.
L&D leaders Courtney Gunkelman (Go1), Helene Tracy (Senior Director of Talent Development at Yelp), Stephanie Garcia (L&D Manager at AMC Theatres), and Rosette Cataldo (CEO of Sherlock Performance AI) recently broke down why traditional training playbooks fall short—and shared five strategies to drive lasting workforce capability.
1. Ditch the “Did They Finish?” Trap
For years, L&D success was measured by compliance tricks and course completions. But as Go1’s Courtney Gunkelman highlighted, the industry has evolved through three distinct eras: from required compliance training, to flexible skill platforms, to today’s core focus—workforce enablement.
“Most organizations now are in that third era, where we want to move beyond just completion and focus on workforce enablement,” Gunkleman shared with the audience. “It’s not simply about delivering the training, but ensuring employees are building, applying, and sustaning what they are learning to provide more business-oriented outcomes.”
“Completion signals to our business owners that we’re not oriented to the business outcomes they value,” Tracy said. “The holy grail is: do they use it on the job?”
Science is stacked against traditional, one-and-done sessions anyway. As Tracy pointed out, the “forgotting curve” is brutal: employees forget about 70% of new content within 24 hours and up to 90% within a week if it isn’t actively reinforced.
2. Treat Skill Building Like an Ecosystem, Not an Event
When employees fail to adopt new behaviors, it’s rarely because they don’t care. Usually, it’s because the environment around them makes old habits easier than new ones.
“We really look at the environment, the processes, the tools, and the people… We don’t want them to just have the knowledge,” Garcia explained. “We want it to become an unconscious skill—something that’s not hard, like breathing for them.”
Before launching any program, she advises HR leaders to take an audit of their working ecosystem:
- Do employees have the right tools and software ready to support the new process?
- Are workload demands so heavy that people don’t have the bandwidth to experiment?
- Are old workflows actively pulling them back into past behavior?
When designing for the whole environment rather than just the classroom, learning actually sticks.
3. Make Manager Reinforcement Effortless
Research consistently shows that manager support is the single strongest predictor of whether learning transfers to the job. However, today’s managers are flatter, busier, and more stretched for capacity than ever before.
If you ask a manager to add a heavy coaching taks on top of their packed schedule, it will fail. Instead, integrate micro-touchpoints into the meetings they’re already having.
At Yelp, for example, when new managers enter their leadership development cohort, their direct bosses automatically receive a lightweight check-in template:
“The email basically reads: “So-and-so is enrolled… Here are three questions you can add to a meeting you are already having with this person,'” Tracy said. “We are not taxing the manager with a new thing to do. Slide one of these questions in and let your dicrect report know you are interested.”
4. Democratize Coaching with AI as a “Thinking Partner”
Trying out a new skill or mindset ina busy work environment can feel risky. Traditionally, executive human coaching was the gold standard for navigating these changes, but it only reaches roughly 1% of employees.
To bridge this scale gap, pioneering organizations are pairing peer cohorts with “coaching-native” AI solutions that extend personalized support down to frontline managers and individual contributors. Crucially, successful adoption relies on thoughtful change management that frames AI as a non-threatening, confidential sounding board.
“Do not think just bringing in a cool thing… is all of a sudden going to make people flock,” Cataldo said. “We need to be thoughtful in change management. Give agency to the employees. Position is as a thinking partner.”
Unlike generic chatbots that simply “tell” users what to do, coaching-native AI uses positive psychology and probing questions to help employees become active problem-solvers.
5. Resurrect L&D Content to Drive Real Business Impact
One of L&D’s biggest headaches is the LMS content graveyard—where up to 90% of created training sits untouched after the initial rollout.
By riding “sidecar” alongside formal programs, continuous learning technology can pull frameworks out of the LMS and surface them in real-time workplace scenarios. Whether an employee has two minutes before a sales meeting or 10 minutes to prep for a tough review, the system helps them apply company tools and core values right when it matters most.
“When you get a request, instead of looking at it as a training request, look at it as a performance request. What is the behavior that you’re looking to change? … You can’t microwave things like greater accountability. The yardstick of succes is not logins—it’s did this move someone from Point A to Point B?” – Stephanie Garcia & Rosette Cataldo
At AMC Theatres, for instance, tracking managers who went through leadership communication training revealed direct bottom-line benefits: higher retention rates and faster internal promotion rates.
The Bottom Line
No one masters a skill in a single 50-minute webinar. Moving from compliance to capability takes peer support, simple manager prompts, and scalable, on-demand tools built for modern workplace enablement.
Stop asking “Did they finish?” and start asking “Are they empowered to perform differently?” When you do this, L&D transforms from a checkbox activity into a major engine for business growth.