One of my favorite sayings is, “Nothing changes if nothing changes.” The reverse is also true: If nothing changes, nothing changes. Perfect! So I was more than a little surprised recently when I visited a company that had made a sizeable investment in bringing continuous improvement into the organization. The surprise was not the decision to do so; my surprise was that there was so little result after more than a year.

Senior leaders had brought in a first-rate training system as the core resource. Company coaches had gone through the train-the-trainer process. Everyone was geared up, psyched up, and raring to go. And they went! But a year later there was no noticeable change. Hardly a trace. The dial had not moved. The vice president of operations asked me to investigate. I reviewed the materials—splendid training content, solid logic, well-presented adult learning. Excellent trainers with strong coaching, personal, and teaching skills... plus outstanding management commitment. What had gone wrong?

Then I turned my attention to the company’s implementation calendar. I wanted to check the pacing of the learn-and-do sequence. What kind of time had been provided for participants to apply what they learned in the classroom? I got my answer: none. There was no such calendar. There was a training calendar only. Huh?

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