Training & Development

What actually develops people and keeps them is mostly everyday management, not a training budget: clear expectations, honest feedback, real coaching, and a manager worth working for — all of which a small employer can do without an L&D department. The one-off workshop most companies reach for is the part that sticks least.

The evidence is clearer than the marketing around it. Specific, challenging goals beat “do your best”; feedback helps when it’s about the work and can backfire when it’s about the person; and teams learn fastest when it’s safe to admit a mistake. What doesn’t hold up is most of the scare-stat marketing: the viral “94% of employees would stay if you invested in their development” line is uncited vendor survey data, and the “70-20-10” split is a practitioner rule of thumb, not a measured ratio — we don’t use either.

This page is about developing people once they’re on the team: building skills, growing managers, and making performance a continuous conversation rather than an annual form. Three related kinds of training live elsewhere and are cross-linked, not rebuilt here: getting a new hire up to speed is on our Hiring & Talent page, mandatory health-and-safety training is on Workplace Health & Safety, and harassment-policy training is on HR Policy & Compliance. Everything below is sourced — each point links down to the note behind it, and each figure is labelled for how strong the evidence actually is.

The evidence

What actually develops people

Peer-reviewed findings on what builds skill and performance — the parts of “training and development” that hold up, as distinct from the marketing around them.

Verified

Clarity beats “do your best”

Specific, challenging goals reliably produce higher performance than vague “do your best” instructions — one of the most replicated findings in organizational psychology. The effect shrinks on complex, novel work, where a learning goal (“find three ways to cut the defect rate”) beats a rigid target.

Locke & Latham (2002) American Psychologist — a 35-year research review
Goal-setting theory ›
Verified

More feedback isn’t automatically better

In the classic meta-analysis of feedback, performance rose on average — but in over a third of cases feedback made performance worse. The difference wasn’t whether the feedback was positive or negative; it was whether it kept attention on the task or pushed it onto the person. So more feedback isn’t automatically better — what matters is keeping it on the work, not the person.

Kluger & DeNisi (1996) Psychological Bulletin — meta-analysis, 607 effect sizes
When feedback backfires ›
Verified

What lets a team learn

Teams improve fastest when people feel safe to admit a mistake, ask a question, or challenge an idea — psychological safety. It isn’t about being nice or lowering the bar: the teams that actually learn pair that safety with high standards. In a small firm the climate is set almost entirely by how the owner reacts to bad news.

Edmondson (1999) Administrative Science Quarterly
What psychological safety is ›

These are research findings with real variability, not guarantees — effect sizes are estimates, and most of this literature is correlational or lab-based. General information, not legal advice.

How development runs

How effective development actually works

This is the method that turns the evidence into a habit. None of it is a legal citation — it’s what developing people looks like when it’s a continuous management practice rather than an annual event. Five moves, and where each one tends to go wrong. The through-line: the cheapest, best-evidenced levers — clarity, feedback, coaching, and the right stretch — are everyday management, not a training budget.

Start from the skills the business needs

Begin with the gap that matters — the skills the business actually needs and the growth the person wants — not a catalogue of courses. Name what “good” looks like and what they’re working toward; specific, challenging goals are the cheapest motivational lever there is. This is the Clarity work.
Setting expectations that land ›

Where it goes wrong Training chosen because it was on offer, not because it closes a gap that matters. A workshop with no goal behind it is a line of cost, not development — and “do your best” wastes the lever entirely.
Develop in the flow of work, not just in courses

Most development happens on the job — a stretch assignment, broader scope, cross-functional exposure — which is cheap for a small employer. The better-evidenced part is that challenging experience develops people, but only up to a point, and only with support and feedback alongside it.
Stretch assignments & the 70-20-10 myth ›

Where it goes wrong The one-and-done workshop treated as the development — and the opposite trap, a stretch dropped on someone with no support, which burns them out instead of growing them. (And “70-20-10” is a rule of thumb, not a measured ratio — never use it to argue “only 10% is training, so cut it.”)
Coach and give feedback as you go

The everyday engine is a manager who coaches — asking, not only telling — and gives regular, task-focused feedback. This is the work the firm calls the Coaching C, and its cheapest, best-evidenced form is a recurring one-on-one where the report does most of the talking.
What makes feedback effective ›

Where it goes wrong The annual review as the only feedback anyone gets. And feedback aimed at the person rather than the work — which the research shows can make performance worse, not better, however well-meant.
Develop your managers — they’re the multiplier

A team mostly rises or falls on its manager, so the highest-leverage development you can do is your managers’. Coaching is a learnable skill, not a personality trait: small studies show a short mindset-and-skills workshop plus follow-up can shift how managers coach, and managers who believe people can grow are the ones who tend to coach at all.
Training managers to coach ›

Where it goes wrong Promoting your best individual contributor into management and assuming they’ll work it out. A great salesperson is not automatically a great sales manager — and expect months, not days, before new habits embed.
Make it continuous — review and adjust

Development is a practice, not an event: review progress against the goals, drop what isn’t working, and keep the growth conversation alive. People who can’t see a way to grow tend to leave to find one — often a lateral move you could have offered first.
Development, commitment & retention ›

Where it goes wrong No follow-through after the workshop, and no visible development path — so people plateau and then quit to grow elsewhere. The check-in that keeps slipping to “when things calm down” is usually the one that mattered.

How to structure a coaching conversation that actually helps ›

Verified

The cheapest development tool

A specific, challenging goal reliably beats telling someone to “do their best” — one of the most replicated findings in the field, and it costs nothing but a clear conversation. The cheapest development you can do is make sure people actually know what good looks like.

Locke & Latham (2002) American Psychologist

Goal-setting theory ›

Article Solving the Leadership Puzzle – Is there a Perfect Answer? Manager development Turning your best doers into good managers? Book a consultation

Development isn’t a workshop you send people to once a year. It’s the everyday work of a manager who’s clear about what good looks like, honest when it isn’t, and willing to stretch someone before they feel quite ready. Most of it costs nothing but attention.

Frank Newman

Creative leadership

On leading and developing people

Questions employers ask

Development questions, answered

Is training actually worth the money?

Employees who perceive their employer invests in their development report more commitment and less intent to quit — but read that honestly: it’s a correlation, not a promise, and the famous “94% would stay if you invested in them” figure is uncited vendor survey data, not fact. The useful part is that the driver is perception, not budget: a manager who coaches, hands out stretch work, and talks openly about growth generates it for almost nothing, which is exactly the lever a small firm has.

Does developing people improve retention? ›

Why doesn’t the training we pay for seem to stick?

Because a one-off event isn’t how skills transfer. Behaviour change takes months and needs follow-up, practice, and feedback in the actual job — the workshop is the start, not the development. Most learning happens in the flow of work through stretch and coaching, supported by feedback, which is why the course with no follow-through fades. (Be wary of anyone quoting precise “forgetting curve” percentages or a “70-20-10” ratio as if they were measured — they aren’t.)

Why coaching and follow-up beat one-off training ›

How do we develop our managers?

Treat coaching as a skill you can build, because the evidence says you can. In small studies, a short mindset-and-skills workshop plus follow-up shifted how managers coach, and one of the strongest predictors of whether a manager coaches at all is whether they believe people can actually change. The mistake to avoid is promoting your strongest individual contributor into management and assuming the skill comes with the title — it doesn’t, and the cost of getting it wrong lands on their whole team.

Training managers to coach ›

How should performance management actually work?

As a continuous practice, not an annual form. After a century of research there’s surprisingly little evidence that any particular review system — the annual appraisal, numeric ratings, forced ranking — improves how well people do their jobs. What is evidenced is narrower and cheaper: clear expectations, specific goals, and frequent, honest, task-focused feedback. So invest in those, be sceptical of vendors selling a “best-practice” system, and keep a fair, documented record — which, separately, has real legal value in Ontario if a dismissal is ever challenged.

Do reviews and ratings improve performance? ›

Does developing people actually keep them?

Somewhat, and honestly. Lack of growth is a genuine but moderate driver of voluntary quitting, and visible development and growth conversations reduce that risk — but development alone won’t retain someone whose pay or manager relationship is the real problem, and those operate at the same time. For a small firm with no formal ladder, the realistic lever is often a lateral growth conversation — new scope, a new skill — rather than a promotion you can’t offer.

Does lack of growth drive quitting? ›

Should we build development in-house or bring in outside help?

Build internal capability as the default. The evidence favours it: internally delivered coaching performs at least as well as external, session count isn’t the lever, and a short manager workshop with follow-up is the cheapest, best-evidenced move there is. Bring in outside help where it genuinely adds something you don’t have — senior-leadership or executive development, a specific skill your managers can’t yet teach, or a neutral outside perspective for sensitive work. The two aren’t exclusive: most small firms are best served building the everyday habit in-house and bringing in help for the few things that need it.

Does workplace coaching work? ›

The knowledge base

Go deeper in the knowledge base

Leadership & management development

Want to develop your people without building an L&D department?

Most small companies don’t need a training department — they need clear goals, honest feedback, and managers who coach to become the everyday habit. If your good people are plateauing, your new managers are sinking, or development keeps slipping to “when things calm down,” that’s worth a conversation. We help build the practice, and tell you honestly what you can do yourself.

Book a consultation Or call 519-362-8352

Training & Development

What actually develops people

How effective development actually works

Start from the skills the business needs

Develop in the flow of work, not just in courses

Coach and give feedback as you go

Develop your managers — they’re the multiplier

Make it continuous — review and adjust

On leading and developing people

Development questions, answered

Is training actually worth the money?

Why doesn’t the training we pay for seem to stick?

How do we develop our managers?

How should performance management actually work?

Does developing people actually keep them?

Should we build development in-house or bring in outside help?

Go deeper in the knowledge base

What is goal-setting theory, and why do specific, challenging goals beat vague do-your-best ones?

Does feedback actually improve performance — or can it backfire?

Does investing in people's development actually improve retention, commitment, and performance?

Does training managers to coach (and adopting a coaching culture) change behaviour and outcomes?

Do performance reviews and ratings actually improve performance?

Does workplace coaching actually work — what do the meta-analyses show?

Want to develop your people without building an L&D department?