Most organisations invest heavily in professional development, yet still lose what matters most: the expertise carried by their most experienced people. It walks out the door when someone leaves, moves up, or simply never gets the chance to pass it on — while new starters take longer than expected to become effective, and formal training often has little impact on day-to-day practice.
Usually the response is more of the same: more courses, more resources, more feedback. That rarely fixes it, because the problem isn't how much training people get. That rarely fixes it, because knowing what to do and actually being able to do it well are two different things. You can understand a job in theory and still not be good at it in practice — that gap only closes by doing the work, alongside people who already know how, with real responsibility handed over a bit at a time.
So instead of asking "what training should we provide?" — I ask "what's actually happening day-to-day that helps someone get good at this — and how do we get more of it, on purpose?"
In practice, that starts with finding out what your most experienced people actually know — the judgement and instinct that rarely gets written down. That gets mapped into a clear sequence of what someone needs to learn and when, then built into how the work already gets done — not bolted on as extra courses.
Done well, this:
* makes expert knowledge visible and easy to pass on
* gets new starters productive faster
* gives people already in the role a clear next step
* builds collaboration instead of everyone working in silos
* makes development part of the job, not something separate from it
None of this replaces formal training — courses still matter. But training alone rarely changes what people can actually do on the job. Real capability gets built in the work itself.
If this makes sense for your organisation, the Capability Audit is the practical starting point — a half-day review of how knowledge and capability currently move for one role or team, with a short report on where to focus first.
I'm also writing a book that goes into this in more depth — more on that soon.