“Who Needs Training in Our Organization?” – Why That’s the Funniest Thing I’ve Heard All Week

Earlier this week, a senior executive in a perfectly respectable suit, in a perfectly respectable boardroom, with a perfectly respectable latte, leaned over and asked me a question that nearly made me fall off my chair:

“Who do you suggest needs training in our organization?”

Oh, darling. Bless.After recovering from the involuntary snort-laugh (I spilled precisely 10% of my coffee, thank you for asking), I composed myself, adjusted my tie, and gave the only reasonable answer possible in the 21st century:

“Everyone.”

Cue the awkward chuckle and the classic managerial squint—part amusement, part discomfort, part internal calculation of budget implications.

You see, this one simple question betrays a much larger and far more dangerous delusion in the corporate world: the idea that training is for the broken, the junior, or the recently promoted—not for the “well-seasoned” or “strategically senior.”

Nonsense. Everyone needs training. Especially the well-seasoned. They’ve been marinating too long in the same sauce.

Let’s unpack this idea with the wry respect it deserves.

Why the Question Is Both Naive and Deadly.

The subtext behind “Who needs training?” is often:

• “Surely not us—we’re the clever ones.”

• “That’s for the sales team, right?”

• “I thought we covered that in 2017.”

• “Can’t we just get someone in for a 90-minute lunch-and-learn and tick the box?”

This is like asking a doctor, “Who needs oxygen?”

Training is oxygen. It’s a lifeline.

And if you think only the interns are wheezing, I suggest you spend five minutes with a senior manager trying to use SharePoint, give useful feedback, or—God help us—handle a mental health conversation without sounding like a malfunctioning toaster.

What Training Is NOT.

Before we go further, let’s do some spring cleaning. Training is not:

• A day out of the office to “bond” over ropes courses and foam balls.

• A box to tick before audit season.

• A punishment for someone who’s “not quite leadership material.”

• A canned, cookie-cutter PowerPoint slideshow featuring clip art and clichés from the Clinton era.

Real training is transformational. It makes you better at thinking, leading, deciding, and connecting. It aligns humans with mission, purpose, and actual capability—not just policy.

So let’s get serious. And cheeky. And practical.

Who Needs Training? (Spoiler: Everyone).

Here’s a breakdown of who needs what, and why:

1. Executives and C-Suite

Yes. You. Especially you.

You are not exempt because your title has a “C” in it. If anything, you’re the most vulnerable to irrelevance because you are:

• Least likely to receive honest feedback (people fear your wrath)

• Most likely to be surrounded by yes-people

• Operating in the highest-stakes, fastest-changing context

Training Focus:

• Strategic decision-making in volatile environments

• Emotional intelligence and executive presence

• Ethical leadership and board communication

• Crisis and media handling (because sooner or later, it’s your face on the news)

Frequency: Quarterly offsite development, plus biannual refreshers focused on scenario-based simulations.

2. Senior and Middle Management

Ah, the frozen middle. Caught between vision and execution, and usually a bit singed from both ends.

These are the people who make or break culture. If they’re trained well, they are a powerhouse. If not, they are culture blockers, communication bottlenecks, and morale vacuums.

Training Focus:

• Leading teams with psychological safety

• Performance feedback and conflict resolution

• Time/priority management in hybrid environments

• Leading through change and ambiguity.

Frequency: Two-day quarterly intensive, with monthly micro-sessions (virtual, 90 minutes max).

3. New Managers and Team Leads

Nothing says “baptism by fire” like becoming a first-time manager with no training and a full inbox.

Training Focus:

• How to stop doing and start leading

• Delegation, accountability, and setting boundaries

• Coaching skills and career development conversations

• Understanding their legal and compliance responsibilities

Frequency: One-week onboarding bootcamp, followed by six-month leadership academy.

4. Individual Contributors (Everyone Else)

These are the people who do the work, keep the ship afloat, and form the spine of your business. If you’re not training them, you’re basically asking them to paddle upstream blindfolded in a leaky canoe.

Training Focus:

• Communication and collaboration in a tech-saturated world

• Emotional intelligence and empathy (especially in client-facing roles)

• Digital skills (data literacy, cybersecurity hygiene, AI basics)

• Resilience and well-being

Frequency: Monthly workshops, self-paced modules, and quarterly “sharpening” sessions.

What Happens When You Don’t Train.

Let me tell you what training neglect looks like in real life. I've seen it too many times:

• A CEO melting down on live radio during a crisis because “No comment” was his only media strategy.

• A team lead causing mass resignations by trying to “motivate” staff with threats.

• A board member misunderstanding ESG and publicly confusing carbon offsets with "holiday vouchers for staff."

• An entire IT department paralyzed by a phishing email, because cybersecurity training was postponed... again.

These aren’t outliers. They are symptoms of chronic training malnutrition. And they cost money, morale, and reputation.

Training That’s Not Team-Building Nonsense.

Let’s distinguish proper training from its less helpful cousin: team building.

• A ropes course is not conflict resolution.

• An improv workshop is not executive communication.

• Drinking games at offsites are not resilience training. (No, seriously. I’ve seen this attempted.)

Here are five top-tier training investments worth every cent:

1. Crisis Simulation Labs: Real-world, high-pressure scenarios using actors, fake media coverage, and instant feedback. You learn more in two hours than you will in a week of reading case studies.

2. AI Fluency for Decision-Makers: Forget coding—your leaders need to know how AI affects risk, bias, and strategic agility. Teach them how to question—not build—the machine.

3. Boardroom Ethics and Whistleblowing: Train your board and executives in recognizing ethical dilemmas, handling dissent, and protecting the organization from scandal or groupthink.

4. Advanced Coaching for Managers: Upgrade managers from task allocators to people developers. Practical coaching techniques can reduce turnover and improve engagement.

5. Cross-Cultural Intelligence: If your team spans time zones, languages, or cultures, train them in nuance, not nationalism. This isn’t “just be nice” training—it’s operational survival.

Common Objections (And My Witty Rebuttals).

“We don’t have the budget.”
You’ll find the money eventually—either for training now or for damage control later. Your choice.

“People don’t have time.”
Then they’re wasting time recovering from misunderstandings, poor delegation, and endless rework. Training saves time.

“We already do onboarding.”
And marriage is more than the wedding day. Training isn’t a one-night stand; it’s a relationship.

“We’re doing fine.”
Complacency is the silent killer of competence. If you think you don’t need training, you’re precisely the person who does.

Final Thought: Training as Corporate Self-Respect.

If your organization is a body, training is the stretching, breathing, and physio that keeps it functioning.

When you skip it, you get stiffness, strain, and eventual breakdown. Then you start patching with consultants like me—often at ten times the price of prevention.

Training is not a luxury. It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s not just for the new hires.

It is your insurance policy against irrelevance. It’s your lifeline.

So next time someone in your organization asks, “Who do you suggest needs training?”—look them squarely in the eye and say:

“Everyone. Including you. Especially you.”

Then pour yourself a sensible whisky, because you've earned it.

Dr Lindsay R. Dodd is an Australian-born corporate strategist who has spent over five decades advising boards, CEOs, and business leaders across Asia, Europe, and the Pacific. Known for his sharp wit, pragmatic insights, and disdain for waffle, he still prefers a handshake—provided it’s followed by an excellent single malt.